A Lightened Path Home
by BuggyFiction
Summary: Sequel to The Vampires Are Coming. Beautiful Soul AU. This is the story of a girl who was rescued from Cullen's Escort Service. Will she adapt to her new situation? How will she react when there's a surprise from the past? And will she finally learn what love is? Bella/Kol endgame.
1. Numb

**A/N:** This is a sequel to The Vampires Are Coming, which you don't necessarily have to have read (but you can find it on my website buggyfiction dot com due to extreme NSFW content issues). It's also an AU to Beautiful Soul. BY ACCIDENT, okay?

Enjoy! xx Buggy

* * *

A part of her understood why Katherine worked with Finn to get the girl out of her contract with the Cullens and why the girl was at that party. Katherine hated the Mikaelsons and the Salvatores and for all of them to have sex with the girl would most definitely drive a wedge between them.

It always did.

On the other hand, after hearing that the girl would never be completely free of the Cullens, she figured it would be better to go back than run and she had tried to throw herself out of the car a handful of times until Katherine subdued her with the calming compound that handlers were required to carry.

When the girl came to; she was alone in a large space on a bed and slightly panicky when Katherine wasn't present. She knew that if Katherine was present, everything was going to be alright, but she was completely alone now. Getting off the bed, she decided to explore, as quietly as she could because for all she knew was that they weren't in New Orleans, and they weren't at the friend of the Mikaelsons.

She didn't know if wherever she was was safe. She was going off on Katherine's experience with the men and her own findings when she was with them, but still, it didn't feel safe. She had this nagging feeling that soon enough, the Cullens would come for her.

The girl walked towards the big windows that seemed to be facing a street and, sure enough, it looked as if she was in New Orleans. They had made it. She let out a breath of relief and smiled. They had made it! But again, simply because they made it to New Orleans didn't mean that they were safe.

She wanted to open the windows to hear the sounds on the street, of the cars and the people walking passed the building she was in but found the windows locked. She didn't like closed places, mainly for her own safety when she wasn't home. When she was home, she knew that she was in a locked area and that it was alright, it was her place, but this wasn't home. This was some place they had gone to for safety, and she didn't feel safe.

Running to the door, she found it unlocked and let out a sigh of relief before putting it ajar and resumed watching people from the window. It didn't take long until she felt Katherine arrive and when she turned to greet her, she noticed another woman with her. Another vampire. Likely Klaus' friend. A quick read told the girl that the woman didn't like Katherine very much, and she immediately took a dislike to the woman as she walked to Katherine to feel safe.

"Chickpea, this is Myriam Jenkins," Katherine said, introducing the other woman. "She's the owner of this place."

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Jenkins," the girl replied with a slight curtsey. She tried to read her again, but now her mind was closed off to her, and she didn't understand why, nothing had changed, had it?

"What did you get on your first read, girl?" Myriam asked kindly. "My dislike towards your companion is my guess. Let me tell you that it's only her that I don't like but that I'm accepting her presence here because you came with her and you both need my help."

The girl slowly nodded and tried to relax as she stood next to Katherine. Maybe if she'd approach this as a work thing, she'd do better.

"And you can't read me now because I have something that protects my mind from intrusions. I've had a few girls like you across my threshold, and some are still here, but I'm also dealing with other vampires, werewolves, witches… it'll get messy, you see. But ask me anything and I'll answer truthfully, or as much as I can. Now, what's your name?" Klaus had been right; the girl had honed into what Myriam would think she would have looked like. Without her amulet, the girl had been a redhead, with it, she could clearly see that the girl was young. Blonde. Blue eyes. It was fascinating, but it also broke her heart.

"What would you like it to be, Ms. Jenkins?"

"As I said, she won't give you her real name. If she does before her contract expires, they'll be able to find her," Katherine explained. "She hasn't used her real name ever since they got their hands on her."

"Which is?"

"A hundred and fifty years, give or take. I've been her handler for the last thirty."

"She must have been one of Carlisle's first, then," Myriam sighed and smiled at the girl. "I'm not going to call you 'the girl' all the time. In fact, I've told this to the other girls from the place you're from, and I named them all. You look like a… Calypso. You know what it means, right? The deceiver. She influenced Odysseus to come with her and held him prisoner for seven years on an island. Seems fitting, don't you think?"

She seemed to think for a moment and then shrugged. It was perhaps a little bit too close to the truth, but Ms. Jenkins didn't need to know that. "Calypso will do, Ms. Jenkins. From now on I'll answer to that name and will refer to myself as Calypso. Thank you."

"Come, let me show you around."

Looking over her shoulder as she was being pulled away from Katherine, Calypso hoped that she would follow as her shadow. She always had, why would it have to stop now? "It's alright, Chickpea, I'll be here when you return," Katherine smiled encouragingly.

"Katherine's room is next to yours," Myriam started once they were in the hallway. "I know that you've been constant companions and that you're lovers, but my experience is that it's best if you learned to be on your own again. Do what you want without having to rely on someone else. It's going to be difficult, but we're all here to help you."

"But what if I want to sleep with Katherine?"

"Then, by all means, do so, but Klaus has instructed me not to allow you to have intercourse until he's figured things out for you."

"But she hasn't paid for me, so the contract doesn't count. I can have sex with people who don't pay for me."

"Don't get me wrong, sweetheart, but perhaps a break from all that sex is a good thing." The girl was smart; Myriam had to give her that. It would be nice to find out who the girl was underneath all that manipulation.

Calypso looked at the woman for a moment before looking back to her feet and nodded. "Of course."

Myriam sighed as she gently rubbed the girl's back. "As I said, it's going to be difficult for a while for you, but trust that all we want for you is to be able to lead a normal life outside of what you know, and what you know is very limited." She gently nudged the girl further down the hallway. "Here's the kitchen. While we do employ a cook to prepare meals, eventually you'll have to do it yourself. If you ask nicely, the cook is likely going to be willing to teach you how to cook."

"I know how to cook," Calypso replied quickly. "They taught me. Sometimes clients like home cooked meals or watch a person cook, and I can provide that."

"And to cook to feed yourself?"

"It wouldn't be too much of a leap to do that, Ms. Jenkins, especially if that's what you request."

Calypso could feel the tension in the woman's body radiate towards her. She was frustrated, and she didn't even have to use her influence to figure that out. "What I request is that you start living your life as it should be lived. Have fun, go crazy. Smash things. Be angry. Feel. Cry. Scream. You're an immortal, Calypso; you have a long life ahead of you, and if you leave here, I want to make sure that you can take care of yourself without having to rely on others."

"Like Katherine?"

"Katherine is a crafty little vamp, but she's not immortal. She can die and then what? What will you do?"

Calypso was quiet for a moment as she considered it. "I'd go back to-"

"No, that is not an option."

"I would find myself a husband to please."

"Good luck, honey, you know as well as I do that times have changed and that it's not that easy anymore to find someone like that. If you do find one, it's likely that they'll take advantage of you."

"And what's the issue with that?"

Myriam let out a frustrated grunt. "Damn, you're good. The other girls were easier to convince but you?"

"I take that as a compliment, thank you, Ms. Jenkins."

"Oh fuck me," she sighed.

Calypso smiled up at her, interest peaked. "Where would you like me to do that?"

Even though this was just an assessment of the new girl, Myriam already knew enough. She had to buy the services of an out of town witch to at least attempt to unlock parts of Calypso's brain to jolt her into realizing that she was going to be on her own, she was going to have to take care of herself, and that life wasn't just about pleasing others. Calypso hadn't broken character, and Myriam sincerely doubted that she ever would.

Although, she could temporarily place Katherine somewhere else; in another safe house, for example, and see what the girl would do in her absence.

"Next up is the showers, now, you're fortunate to have one in your room, but you may run into others here."

"Would you like me to fuck you here?"

"Stop it," Myriam growled at her as she pushed her towards the gym. "This is the gym where you can let off some steam. Punch against the punching bags to release your anger or whatever." Myriam then showed her the laundry room and then returned her back to her room. "I'm going to send one of my girls up with some food and books for you, is that alright, Calypso? I'm going to have to borrow Katherine for a little longer."

Myriam pulled Katherine with her and pushed her into her room before closing the door. "You have some explaining to do, missy," she shot at her. "This girl doesn't look anywhere near ready to leave the Cullens! Hell, I doubt she even wants to!"

"She loved the idea of her contract being up, what are you talking about?"

"Does she truly or only because you told her that it was a good thing so you could both leave?"

"She wants to be free, Myriam."

"Again, does she truly or only because you told her that being free was the best thing for her?"

Katherine looked as if she had swallowed a bug and ran her hand through her hair. "Perhaps I've been so caught up in what I wanted that I failed to realize that the girl hasn't had an original thought for so long…" she muttered. "Fuck! I'm not better than them!"

"And now you've made all of us your accomplice," Myriam snarled. "You do know that I will have to inform Klaus, right? And you do know that I have to let her go, don't you? I can't help someone who doesn't want to be helped."

"Myriam, please."

"Holding her here against her will is not an option, Katherine. We're better than that."

"She's brainwashed! She doesn't know what she wants because she's not capable of thinking for herself!" Katherine pointed to the wall that was attached to Calypso's room. "At least do something!" Her voice thick with emotion. "Like… I know you and Klaus have connections, find someone who can return her free will to her. If she still wants to go back, I won't stop her, but please, Myriam," she begged. "Please."

Myriam was surprised by Katherine's kindness towards the girl. She genuinely seemed to be wanting to help her and sighed. "Very well," she replied softly. "But only because you genuinely seem to want to help this girl. I'll have someone fly in as fast as they're able to."

"Thank you."

~o.O.o~

Katherine hadn't been with her for days, and Calypso felt that it was likely that she had done something wrong. No one had come to give her something to eat, either. Or at least remind her that she needed to eat.

Immortal or not, she couldn't survive on water alone, her stomach still grumbled and after a few days, she went outside of her room, counting the doors as she walked towards the kitchen. The cook wasn't there, but that wouldn't stop her from cooking for everyone. She multiplied the doors by two; she was going to cook for 20 people. No big deal.

Looking around, she quickly made herself at home in the well-organized kitchen; everything was where you'd expect it to be in a kitchen, and she was happy that despite the cook's absence, it was well stocked.

She started with dessert first, seeing as it needed time to bake in the oven and needed time to cool down. Hot Lemon Pie wasn't nice, and people often burned their mouths on it because they couldn't wait. Three pies were enough.

By the time the pies were in the oven and she was cleaning up so she could start on dinner or whatever the time was, she began to feel faint and stole a piece of chocolate from the fridge to continue her work and finally figured out what she'd cook for everyone. Her spaghetti with meatballs. Granted, making enough meatballs to serve twenty quite generously was quite the task, but that was part of cooking. She'd make them while the sauce bubbled away.

People passed the kitchen while she was cooking, occasionally getting something out of the fridge, but no one she recognized. Didn't Ms. Jenkins say that there were more girls from the service in this building? It wasn't her place to be that curious about it, though. She wouldn't know how she'd react to them, but she was pretty certain that nobody would like her.

With the Cullens, there were only a handful of good girls, like Calypso, who did everything she was told. Who loved to please everyone and not taking herself into account. It was something that she was taught to do over a long sixty years where Dr. Cullen had her in a laboratory to fiddle with her body.

Ms. Jenkins was wrong. She wasn't one of the first of the girls he created so beautifully; Calypso was the first. The first success story of the brilliant mind of Dr. Cullen. Calypso hadn't even minded the pain and torture she'd gone through for so long because it meant that the girls after her wouldn't have to endure it. Perhaps that's why most of the girls were still imperfect.

She should tell Dr. Cullen that. Most of the girls wouldn't be able to get the same treatment because they were created on a whim, but surely his most prized girls would do much better with the same treatment that she had had.

What would happen if she snuck out? Would they hold her against her will? Katherine would certainly hate her for leaving, but Calypso wasn't Katherine. Katherine was getting paid to be her handler, to be everything in Calypso's world and she was currently not doing a good job of it.

Calypso was proud of the food she had produced. Everything tasted brilliant, and she had put effort into making it all look right on the kitchen island. She knew she wasn't supposed to eat first, but she couldn't help herself and put a little bit on a plate and hid behind the counter to eat. Her stomach loved her for it.

As she was scraping her plate to make sure there'd be no waste, she got startled by Ms. Jenkins, who was standing over her like an Amazon, arms crossed over her chest, a stern look on her face. Calypso was in trouble.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?"

She quickly scrambled to her feet and held up her empty plate. "You requested that I'd cook for myself, Miss," Calypso replied impishly. "But that's a selfish act, so I decided to cook enough to feed a few people. I'm sorry if I ate before anyone else, my stomach was growling."

Myriam narrowed her eyes on the immortal girl. While charity was a good trait to have, feeling selfish for cooking something for yourself wasn't. She wasn't surprised that it had taken the girl this long to leave her room. It was a good thing that Myriam told Katherine to hide out in one of the rooms in the basement to see what their girl was going to do. At least the girl had come out of her own accord.

It was a good thing that Circe was willing to come back to New Orleans to work with this girl. Circe had been one of Carlisle Cullen's failures but had retained the 'gift' he had given her on top of her being a witch. Fortunately for her, her gift and her magic worked perfectly together, and Myriam was confident that Circe would be able to break down a wall inside Calypso's mind.

When Myriam didn't say anything, Calypso sweetly smiled and gestured over to the lemon pie. "Please, have some," she urged her. "It's delicious."

"Aren't you going to ask me where Katherine is?"

"It's not my place to know," Calypso replied as she rinsed off her plate and put it in the dishwasher. "But if something has happened to her I'll be sad."

"Why is that?"

"She takes care of me and she has nice hands," Calypso slightly giggled as she thought of the feeling of Katherine's hands on her. "To know that I'm appreciated makes me feel good, but in all honesty, I'd rather work so I feel normal."

"This isn't normal for you? Just hanging around?"

She shook her head. "It is good to get inside someone's mind, feel what they're feeling, act the way they want you to; it's difficult not to have that right now."

"Do you do it with Katherine?"

"Of course, she's my handler; I need to know where she is when I'm working."

Myriam sighed as she sliced off a piece of lemon pie and started to eat it, the girl had gone through all the trouble to make it, so why the hell not? She was talking which was a good thing, but again, the answers didn't hold much substance. No soul. No personality. It made sense that Carlisle Cullen had given her the ability to get inside people's minds and act the way they saw her as her own personality had been locked away for a very long time, and she didn't even know what it was like to live. "This is magnificent, Calypso!" Myriam hated Lemon Pie.

The girl beamed with pride. "It's one of the recipes my grandmother had taught me before I was courted by Edward. The plan had always been that I would run my grandmother's establishment after her passing, but I suppose fate had something else in mind for me."

It was the first thing that she had said that was personal, and Myriam was impressed. But was that even true? Wasn't Edward one of the most recent vampires of the Cullen clan compared to how long Bella had been with them? "Where are you from, originally?"

Calypso shrugged then. "Where do you want me to be from?"

"What was your grandmother's name?"

She shrugged again.

Sighing, Myriam put the pie aside. The little shimmer of hope she felt for the girl's recovery without any intervention was now gone. They really needed Circe.

"I have a friend who's coming over tomorrow, and she wishes to see you, is that alright with you?"

"Of course," Calypso smiled. "If that's what you wish."

Frustrated, Myriam ran a hand through her hair. Oh, she wished she could slap this girl hard enough to unscramble her brains, but she couldn't. She was supposed to save and support girls like this, not hurt them. Calypso was the most heavily programmed girl she'd ever come across, and while she had faith in Circe, she also doubted that even she could do something to help this girl.

Myriam could, of course, tell the girl that she wished that she behaved normally, that she'd fit in or even open up about her feelings, but she knew that the girl would only be telling her what she wished to hear. Unable to influence her or not, the girl did know how to figure that out.

"Have some more food and enjoy yourself, Calypso," she eventually said. "I must take my leave; I have some business to attend to."

"Will Katherine be back tonight?"

"I'm sorry, Cherie, you'll have to do without her for a while longer."

Calypso nodded as she plated up again. "Am I allowed to eat this in my room?"

"Of course."

"Thank you," she replied and hurried to her room. Myriam could hear the door close and let out a breath she wasn't aware of that she was holding. She was going to feed and then talk to Klaus. No, not talk, curse him. Call him names, yell at him. He was a fucking asshole to send this girl to her, it was something she was making abundantly clear over the last few days, but it wouldn't hurt for him to hear it again.


	2. Forced Entry

Calypso had waited until nightfall before she was going to make an attempt to escape and go back home. Her windows were locked, but her door wasn't, and she was pretty confident that she'd be able to walk right out the door.

She found access to a staircase and went down a level but was surprised she wasn't able to go out; it seemed as if some spell was keeping her from leaving. Frustrated, she hit against the nothingness before deciding to wander around. There were more rooms on this level. Smaller rooms than the ones upstairs, but more.

Girls were walking around in cute little dresses and all dolled up, a man holding their hand as they showed them a room. The smell of sex was in the air, and Calypso was appreciative of how, for some reason, it wasn't that bad. She explored some more, but the stairs were the way out for her.

Returning to the stairs, she still couldn't get out, and that was mean. She wanted to go home.

"They didn't explain it to you?" A girl's voice sounded from behind her. Turning around, Calypso saw a gorgeous young woman with red curls around her face. She was wearing a corset which accentuated her breasts quite well and had Calypso been a man; she'd definitely would have gotten an erection from the sight before her. "Whenever there's a danger to us outside, or even in the club below, the warlocks throw up a few protection barriers to keep us all safe. The only ones able to cross that barrier are the men who are vetted downstairs to come and play with us."

"Oh," Calypso sighed. "Too bad."

"You wanted out?"

"Yeah," she smiled, connecting with the girl in her mind, riding her energy wave, making her see what she wanted to see, and right now, it was a girl dressed similarly to her. "I wanted to get a breath of fresh air; that's all."

"Well, there's plenty to do around here. It's kinda busy, and we're short staffed. Say, do you happen to like sex? You get paid quite generously around here!"

~o.O.o~

She'd been on the phone with Klaus for about an hour now, demanding that he'd come down to New Orleans and take this girl into his own care. She'd have Circe do her magic on her but this girl needed someone to manage her, to handle her and Myriam wasn't going to do that.

Myriam was patient, yes, but this girl was a test to how far that patience reached. And Myriam had already reached her tax. "I swear to God, Klaus, I might actually hurt her."

"She's immortal, love, it'll be fine."

"She's a girl in need, Klaus. Not someone to hurt even further!" Myriam decided to check her security feeds as the building was on alert. Not red alert, no, perhaps yellow or orange, but there were a few rowdy werewolves out and about, and she had to protect her girls on the first floor. They weren't allowed to leave, yet they were still allowed to work after the men were tested for being a werewolf or not. On any other day, they serviced werewolves but only when vetted thoroughly with a background check and everything. "She'd be safe around you because you know how to resist her."

"And only when I'm aware of it, love," Klaus replied, and Myriam could have sworn she heard him smiling. There was a smile in his voice, wasn't there? "Should I happen to be in a room and not notice her, she could take advantage of that and well. It'd be hard to say no, would it?"

"Klaus!" Myriam let out a whine before her eyes fell on the camera at the stairs. "Oh no, she didn't!" She let out a growl as she watched Calypso walk off with Abeebee. Now it wasn't standard practice to inform her working girls about the girls coming in from their little... side business, but perhaps she should have told Abeebee about what had happened, as it had an impact on her, too.

"What is it, love?"

"I'll call you back later," she said, as she rushed out the door still with her cellphone in hand.

"Myriam!"

"Not now!" she hissed as she put the phone in her pocket and headed upstairs. The vampire was just in time to stop the girl from pulling a heavily influenced trucker inside a room. "No!" She sternly said as she pushed the man into Abeebee's arms and pulled Calypso away from all the sex, back upstairs to her room.

Calypso struggled against her hold, but Myriam didn't care. She also didn't care that she was likely bruising the girl's arm by using some force to keep her where she needed her to be. "What part of no sex don't you understand, Calypso? What in the world were you doing there?" Myriam almost threw the girl into her room. "Answer me!"

"Doing what I wanted," she replied calmly, her head slightly tilted as she watched the vampire. "Wasn't that what you want?"

She let out a breath and nodded. "Yes, but what were you planning on doing?"

"Well, obviously to go downstairs and see if Katherine was there but then I couldn't go," Calypso replied innocently. "And then this girl said that they needed help to get through the men wanting to have some fun with them so…" she smiled then. "What's the harm in a little bit of fun?"

"Do you want the Cullens to find you?"

"Yes."

Myriam let out a frustrated groan. "It would immensely please me if you'd stay in your room until I come to get you to meet my friend tomorrow. Should you not comply, I'll tie you up and throw you in our holding cell, do you understand?"

"As you wish, Ms. Jenkins," Calypso smiled at her, sitting down on her bed with her legs crossed. "Anything else?"

"Stay put," she said sternly before leaving the room and closing the door behind her. She headed straight back to her office and poured herself a tall glass of wine and sighed as she sat down behind her desk. "Next time say no, Myriam," she told herself. "No. I have enough girls to worry about. No, not one of Cullen's again. Kill it. With fire. Or something."

"Myriam."

She nearly spat out her wine as she fumbled her phone out of her pocket and noticed that it was still connected to Klaus. "Merde!"

"What the hell just happened?"

"Well, apparently I didn't hang up the phone," she retorted angrily. "Couldn't you have given me like a minute of silence or something before speaking up?"

"Not when you threaten the life of an immortal girl that I sent to you because you're capable of taking care of her."

"I caught her sneaking off! And she lied to me, Klaus. She wasn't going to look for Katherine, but I bet your ass that she wanted to walk right out of the club and make sure they'd find her."

"She's a crafty one, that one. And did you call her Calypso?"

"It's fucking fitting, okay? She just proved that! Get your ass over here or else!" It was quiet on the other end of the line before she could hear Klaus' brother Kol snicker. "Kol Mikaelson, you shut your mouth!"

"Nik, who the hell is this woman to tell me to shut up? Are you sure that the girl is safe with her?"

"Shut up, Kol, mind your own business."

"Fine. I guess I'll be heading to New Orleans - was it? - on my own."

"Myriam, do you still have the present I gave you last time we met in person?"

"You're honestly not thinking about agreeing to this?" Myriam tiredly pinched the bridge of her nose. She didn't want to have to deal with Kol Mikaelson. Granted, she'd rather have him than Elijah, but Kol was excitable and unreliable, according to Klaus, something that she couldn't use around here.

"Kol has a way with the witches. Perhaps he could convince them to help this girl when your souped up witch doesn't work."

"Fine, but unlike you, he's not staying here."

"I'm hurt, darling."

Myriam growled. "Careful, I may be only 300 years old, but I can still stab you in the face with a white oak pencil."

"D'awww, that's adorable! Ouch! Nik! Bloody hell!"

"Get lost." Myriam could hear some movement on the other end of the conversation before Klaus spoke again. "As I said, I'll be there in two days. Unfortunately, I can't trust Kol on his own, and I'm sure my other siblings will grow tired of him, so I'm taking him with."

"Why won't you just return him to his box?"

"I have a feeling that we might need him, love."

"Fine. But your brother stays away from Calypso."

"He's more than capable of fighting her influences off too."

"Klaus!"

"Very well."

"I'm curious to know how far she got you, Klaus," Myriam mused, taking a sip from her wine. "You told me that you were her last and that you were prepared."

"He was totally naked when we walked in!" Kol's voice sounded, followed by something smashing against a wall and Kol laughing. "This is going to be fun! Does Elijah know about her?"

"No! And you will not tell him!"

"Elijah!"

~o.O.o~

When Myriam and Circe went to Calypso's room the following morning, Myriam was slightly surprised to see the girl still on her bed, sitting cross-legged much like when she had left her the night before. At least the girl didn't wander off again.

"Good morning, Calypso!" Myriam greeted her. "This is my friend Circe."

"Good morning," she replied politely, not moving from her bed as she observed the two women with curious eyes. What had Myriam planned for her?

"Hi," Circe smiled kindly and sat down next to her before she tucked a strand of Calypso's hair behind her ear. "I believe we have a friend in common. His name is Carlisle."

Myriam watched as Calypso visibly relaxed. "He's amazing," the girl replied to Circe, eyeing her curiously. "Are you here to take me back?"

"More or less," the witch replied before looking over to Myriam. "You're right, she has a natural blockage of her own; I understand now why Carlisle would love to have her back. Imagine having a whore who only works within certain parameters and can't be influenced to do the stuff she doesn't want to do."

"But he made it work."

Circe sighed and nodded. "Unfortunately yes. It's going to be a struggle to get at least something free. There is something easier inside of her mind I could work with, but you're not going to like it. It's more primal and likely going to be destructive, but maybe it'll help her in realizing that Carlisle is not our friend."

"But he is!" Calypso didn't like what Circe was saying and tried to get away from her. "You can't spew lies about him. He's amazing and kind and helpful. My God, his entire family is just fantastic!"

"Are they? Do you have any idea what they've done to me? Carlisle started his experiments in the 1800's back when medicine was still cruel, and his techniques were harsh as well because he didn't have the right tools. I was tied up, shot up with God knows what and I spent days convulsing in agony on his table. Or in the chair. He burnt me with fire underneath my feet, tried to make me comply to what he wanted for me. I was with him for ten long and agonizing years, and I remember every single thing about it. He dumped me for being 'faulty'."

"Well, perhaps you are," Calypso replied as a matter of factly. "Dr. Cullen strives for perfection. In fact, I have to inform him that his methods for the girls who came after me aren't enough. That they'll have to get the same treatment as I had. Sure, it's time-consuming, but if the girls ended up here, something isn't right."

"But you're here."

"Because Katherine took me and I want to go home. So you either take me back, or I'll find a way to get home myself!"

"No."

"Then I'll find a way to kill myself. Immortal or not, surely there's a way for me to just wither away."

"Okay, okay," Circe held up her hands in defeat. "If you're so willing to go back, why haven't you told Myriam your real name? You know that if you do that before your contract is up that they'll be able to find you."

"She named me Calypso," she was focusing hard to at least get Circe on her side of things, but it seemed that like Myriam, she was protected. "You are holding me against my will and I don't understand why Katherine agrees to this."

"She's trying to save you."

"From what!" Calypso blurted angrily. "I am safe. I am being taken care of! I want to go home!" She pushed Circe aside and walked towards Myriam who was guarding the door. She tried to pull the vampire away from the door, but because she couldn't tap into the other person's strength, she was having a hard time removing the woman.

"I can't get inside her head like this," Circe said as she walked over to her bag. "You were right; she's too programmed. Too scared to reveal her own name because even if it means that she'll be picked up and brought back home, she might know what will happen next."

"Which is what, exactly?" Myriam asked as she kept her ground and allowed the tiny spitfire to rage on. Myriam could take it for a little while longer.

"Retraining or a full reboot on her abilities. Perhaps both. She may not even see daylight ever again."

Myriam was appalled. "He can do that? Take it all away and give her something new?"

Circe nodded as she pulled a liquid into a syringe. "I've encountered a few of them like that. They're never really the same after that."

"In what way?"

She shrugged then. "It's always different. It varies from not being able to wipe your own ass to living in constant fear. You either go mad through the procedure, or you stay sane." She then walked over to the girl who was still trying to remove Myriam from the door and plunged the syringe into her neck, squeezing it until nothing was left in the canister. "Give it a moment."

Circe ducked to avoid the girl from hitting her in the face and watched her fall to the ground like a ton of bricks. "Bingo."

"What did you give her?" Myriam asked as she lugged the girl onto the bed. The girl was still conscious but was unable to move her extremities.

"This sucks," Calypso muttered.

"A paralyzing agent or two… special blend for supernatural creatures and no, you can't have the recipe," she grinned as she sat down next to Calypso's head. "You know how I love my drugs."

"Of course."

"Now, do you wish to stay for what happens next or do you want to leave? Like I said; I can try to pull something to the surface, but it'll be easier to go for something more primal, less delicate but more impact."

Myriam let out a sigh. "I have an obligation towards Klaus to take care of her. I will not walk away from this."

"It's likely she's going to scream. Cry. Do not reach out to her as I'm going to put her in a trance before I go deeper. I don't want to startle her."

Myriam sat down on the couch and sat down on her hands. "Proceed."

"Myr, she might not come out of this as whole."

"Do it."

~o.O.o~

 _Bella opened her eyes and tried to adjust to wherever she was, the place smelled dank and a hint of copper was in the air. She couldn't move, and everything was foggy. Even the voices. She had to concentrate hard on what the voices were saying. It was one voice, she realized. Talking to himself._

" _It was remarkably easy to get what I wanted. For years I've been observing her comings and goings. She's always going back and forth her grandparent's house and the house she's been put to work. She's compassionate, and I knew that I wanted her. Aro couldn't read her mind, which is fascinating."_

 _She heard some rummaging through drawers and next thing she knew was that she was vomiting blood. It was a different day; the sun was shining through the windows and her blood didn't even taste like blood anymore. Bella passed out, then, only to shift into another memory._

 _She was hanging from the ceiling, her ankles secured to the floor. All stretched out, and the impeccable Carlisle Cullen was standing in front of her looking mighty proud. "Bella, tell me how proud you are of me for making you immortal."_

" _I'm proud of you, Dr. Cullen, for using your medical knowledge to your advantage and making me immortal. It's what I've always wished for myself." Her voice was hers, but it didn't sound like her, at all. "I am grateful for what you're doing to me."_

" _Good girl." Carlisle then stabbed her with the sword he was holding, making her cough up blood again. "Don't cough it up. Swallow it. Breathe." The pain was extraordinary, she could feel the dull blade writhe around in her torso, she could feel it travel upwards towards her breasts. She heard bones crack as he moved it and she didn't pass out. She was a good girl and swallowed her blood. She breathed. But it hurt._

 _She was attached to a machine which was doing something to her blood, and when her blood returned to her body, it burned. Her head felt as if it was going to explode. Her heart stopped beating when the machine stopped. She couldn't breathe and passed out. She woke up with Dr. Cullen frantically pounding her chest, breaking her ribs. Bruising her breasts. "Good girl, you've made it back again." She smiled._

 _She was on her hands and knees, and something was inside of her ass. Hard, cold. She couldn't move as the object moved inside of her. She was gagged so she couldn't use her voice. It felt as if she was being split open and it hurt. She saw stars. Someone tugged on her hair then, moving her head, so she had to look at something and realized that it wasn't a thing inside of her; it was Dr. Cullen and his shaft. "Good girl, taking it so well, looking so beautiful." The pain went away; she felt proud of herself. He thought she was a good girl._

 _She was on her hands and knees, and she had something around her neck. She was in a cage, and the cage was getting smaller and smaller. If she moved, the thing around her neck tightened. Like a noose. She got stabbed with something sharp, but she was taking it with pride. Dr. Cullen was proud of her._

 _She'd been instructed to sit quietly in front of the bed. Head bent, wrists behind her back and ankles crossed. Dr. Cullen had a new addition to his family, and she was going to be his gift to his new son. It was exciting. She had been taught about the newborns, how they could be stronger than regular vampires and how excitable they were. She couldn't wait. Dr. Cullen would be so proud of her if she'd be able to entertain his new son!_

" _My, aren't you a lovely little morsel," a strange voice sounded, and she forced herself not to look up. Dr. Cullen would be so disappointed if she did. "What's your name, beautiful?"_

" _Whatever you wish it to be, sir," she replied calmly._

" _Can I think about it?"_

" _Of course," she smiled at the floor, she could feel her excitement buzz through her body, and she felt Dr. Cullen's latest addition to her body kick in. She could feel Dr. Cullen's son vibrate all around her, his energy, his dark and twisted energy. He liked things rough, and she happened to be durable. Dr. Cullen would be so proud, she didn't have to be scared, she was durable. There was no room for pain. No room for fear. It didn't exist. She existed only for Dr. Cullen and his family. His son. Edward. His name was Edward, and she was his._

 _Edward picked her up by the throat from the ground and lifted her to eye level. She kept breathing, her eyes briefly flashed up to meet his, she was a tease. Men liked it. Focusing hard, she told Edward's subconscious that she was his. His. His. His. She was his and ready for him. So wet. His._

 _His eyes were red, like the devil. She liked the devil. She was his. Edward smirked as he pushed her against the nearest wall and plunged into her. She could feel him break her body as he moved, angrily. Hard. Fast. But it didn't matter. It didn't hurt._

 _She could feel his teeth break her skin; it felt as if small syringes were inserted into her shoulder before the burn came and she wasn't prepared for that. It burned hotter than the fires of hell, hotter than anything Dr. Cullen had ever put her through. She wasn't supposed to react, and she was going to get into trouble for this, but it hurt so bad that she started to scream as he sucked her blood out of her. She was on fire; her whole body was reacting to the venom coming out of his mouth, and her screaming only made him hurt her more._

 _Dr. Cullen wasn't going to be proud of her; she thought as tears fell from her eyes._


	3. Eyes Closed

They left her alone while whatever Circe had done to her was still making her way through her head. The memories that she had unlocked on repeat, the pain increasing every time they passed through her mind's eye. She wanted to run, hide, tuck it all away as she had in the last 150 years but found herself unable to. Mentally and physically as the drug Circe used on her was still doing its thing.

She felt her mind weakening as the sedative made its way to her head, sleepy. But she fought it. She didn't feel safe in the room, in the building. Klaus Mikaelson's friend Myriam wanted her to stay and had betrayed her by having the witch Circe come and crack open the vault inside Bella's mind just a smidge. She hadn't been able to open it fully or even a quarter, and that made Bella afraid.

No, not Bella. Calypso. Or whomever. Not Bella.

She didn't want to be found by the Cullens. She didn't want to go back. A part of her wishes she could go back only to make her stop feeling the pain again. But she wasn't safe here in the building. She'd tell Katherine and Katherine would take her away. Or at least she hoped she would; that nothing had changed, that Katherine still cared and still felt as if she needed to make sure that the girl felt safe.

A part of her mind was still fighting the unlocked memories, telling her that it were lies, but they felt real. They felt… alive. Her memories weren't a lie. What she had heard over the last few days concerning the Cullens sounded more plausible by the minute, and she needed to get away.

She startled when she felt Katherine's arms around her, how Katherine manipulated her body to sit up in an upright position, against Katherine's body. The vampire started to rock her and say soothing words but all Calypso wanted was to leave. Run. "Katherine."

"It's okay chickpea…" she shushed her. "It's going to be alright."

"We need to leave, please," Calypso urged her, trying to reach out with her ability and was surprised it still worked - although not at full strength. She urged Katherine to listen to her. "We're not safe. We won't ever be safe, and I don't wish harm to come to the people in this building. We need to leave."

"That's the drugs talking, sweetheart. You're going to be fine."

"No. Please."

Katherine sighed and saw the fear and determination in the girl's eyes. "Klaus is going to kill me. You know that, right?" It was unbelievable how much fighting spirit she still had inside of her, trying to fight off the workings of Circe's drugs and spell, but Katherine could tell that she was holding on to the very last thread of her consciousness.

"I'm safe with you, not here."

Katherine wrapped a blanket around the girl and lifted her in her arms. "Very well, close your eyes. I've found an exit, but it will require some jumping and stuff."

"Safe." Calypso murmured against her shoulder before losing consciousness.

~o.O.o~

"You let them leave?" Klaus fumed as he paced inside Myriam's office. "You allowed them to leave? Have you gone mad?"

"I didn't let them or allow them to, Klaus! I told Katherine to stay away from the girl while she was still under, but she didn't listen and that bitch… she jumped out of the fucking window, alright?" This was not how Myriam had imagined their reunion. It had been a hundred years, give or take, since she last saw him and she had imagined sex. Lots of sex.

"And what are you doing to resolve this problem?"

"I have my best team looking for them, but they're not in New Orleans anymore."

"It's been a day! They could be anywhere!"

"She didn't even want to be here!" Myriam shot at him before taking a deep breath to calm herself in case things would escalate. She knew that Klaus wouldn't do anything to hurt her, but even he could do crazy things in his rage. "Klaus, please trust me that I have my best team looking for her. If it makes you feel any better, I can show you the footage of the security camera in her room of her and Katherine talking after Circe and I left."

"What about before that?"

"You don't want to see that, Klaus," Myriam stopped him from pacing and put her arms around him. "It just involves a lot of screaming and crying."

"It worked, then?"

"We don't know yet," she replied as she kissed along his jaw. "We were hoping to find out when she'd wake up again. But, according to her conversation with Katherine, she wasn't feeling safe here."

"That's ridiculous. This building is the safest place there is. There are so many spells on this building to hide people, to ward off unwanted guests. Your security is top notch," Klaus gave into Myriam's calming influence and kissed the top of her head. "I'm sorry, love, I just hate it when things don't work out with the girls I send to you."

"Who says it didn't work out? She'll be back," she smiled at him. "I think she didn't feel safe here because she only knows Katherine and I purposely kept them apart to see what Calypso would do, to assess her."

"And, on top of that, you only tolerated Katherine because of her and the fact that Katherine could die at the hands of the Cullens as well."

"Yes."

"Is there anything we can do?"

"Yes," Myriam coyly replied as she pulled him towards her desk. "We can have that reunion you've promised me for a century."

~o.O.o~

She woke up with the sun shining on her face, in a moving vehicle and the radio softly on. Startled, she shook the blanket off of her before noticing Katherine sitting next to her.

"Morning, chickpea! Welcome to Mexico!" Katherine greeted her joyfully. "Want me to stop somewhere so you can freshen up and eat something?"

Calypso slowly nodded as she looked around in a daze. "Mexico?"

"A full day's drive, mind you, dodging all the traffic accidents and compelling cops and border officials… I haven't had so much fun fleeing the country since Klaus stopped chasing me!" Katherine laughed as she reached out to the girl to push her hair out of her face. "You okay, kiddo?"

"I'm fine," she replied as she kept looking out of the window. "The less we talk about what happened, the better. They won't find us."

"No decisions."

"No decisions," Calypso nodded. One of the Cullens could find you whenever you made a decision and if she was looking for you. But who was she kidding? There was no way that she was going to be on the run for the rest of her immortal life. There was only one way to kill her, and that formula was in Carlisle's laboratory. Katherine could die easier. Dying was likely the easiest way to get away from them, and even that was going to be hard for Calypso.

Perhaps she could request a lobotomy when they'd find her and brought her back. At least that way all the pain and thoughts would stay away. She'd be hidden inside the compound, only for Cold Ones to use and no outside interference. It wasn't ideal, but it would be the best solution, wouldn't it? Running forever? Was that true freedom? "This isn't going to work."

"Yes it is, you'll see," Katherine said as she pulled into a parking lot. "Come on, let's get us something to eat."

~o.O.o~

"Do you have any idea what I had to do to get through the security doors to see you?" Kol huffed as he dusted himself off. "Your witches are tough cookies!"

Klaus growled. They were in the process of cleaning up Myriam's office after celebrating their reunion and were fully dressed but had his idiot brother managed to find them a few minutes earlier; it would have been an entirely different story. "What do you want?"

"Meet your girlfriend, of course," Kol said lightly, leaning against the doorway. "It's incredibly fascinating how long this relationship has lasted, knowing you."

"Get out!" Klaus grabbed the closest object to him and threw it at his brother, who caught the empty mug and sniffed at it.

"It wasn't coffee inside of this mug," he remarked as he watched the woman. He could tell why Klaus liked her so much. Her dark hair, slightly colored skin, flawless. And that face. Gorgeous. "Sure, I'll get out, but you wouldn't hear what I've discovered."

"What?"

"Well, I've discovered that your little pet project Marcel Gerard takes after you. He's taken over New Orleans in your absence and has the witches scrambling in fear. They can't perform ancestral magic or else. Apparently, there's this tiny witch who can sense it, and he finds the offending witches and kills them," Kol said, venom evident in his voice. "I don't like it. I do like, however, the way your girlfriend protected this place. Traditional magic. Dark objects that are likely mine. Ancient magic, but nothing ancestral."

"Because of Marcel," Myriam finally spoke. "That dick has been nothing but a headache."

"Then why didn't you stop him?"

"Well, Kol, I'm running a sex club. I can't lead three factions of supernatural beings on the side," she retorted. "And I didn't tell Klaus about it because he had his issues to deal with. Marcel might be a dick, but at least there's some control. While what he does to the witches is bullshit, his vampires have rules. Humanity is important to him, so his vampires are being kept in check. Every once in awhile, he throws this huge party at the compound where his vampires can feed, compel and let their victims go. Quite ingenious. I keep my nose out of his business, and he stays out of mine."

"Does he know what you do, love?" Klaus asked, a smile appearing on his face, sitting in Myriam's chair behind her desk and enjoyed the banter between her and his brother.

Myriam narrowed her eyes on her lover, seeing right through his question. "No, he doesn't know that you're involved. From what I heard is that Mikael told him you abandoned him like you do with everyone else and Marcel accepted that as truth. He took your place as King of New Orleans out of spite. He loves people. He occasionally brings me a girl who's in need of my help."

"Does he know we're here?" Klaus asked his brother.

"Well, no, our entrance was quite stealthy, but my guess is that by the end of the day he'll know I'm here seeing as I went to the Quarter and all," Kol smirked. "He doesn't have to know about you."

"You should pay him a visit."

"I might," Kol replied, bouncing the mug that had previously been thrown at him in his hand. "Another discovery; I had to convince a witch to do a locator spell for me. One of my own, magic that wouldn't be detected by Marcel's bloodhound. Katherine and the girl are in Mexico."

Myriam huffed. "My witches came up empty."

"As I said; a spell of my own," Kol said proudly. "My spells always hit their mark."

"Do you know where in Mexico?"

"No, but I think they're heading towards the border."

"I'll inform my team," Myriam said as she took out her phone and shot off a message to Alina. She had a bunch of people working for them whose names all started with an A; jokingly she referred to her team as the A-Team, which they were in all sense of the word. They were good. Very good. There were two former Army women on the team, a hacker, a witch and a grifter. The perfect combination to track down supernaturals or those who hurt the girls in Myriam's care.

"Goodie," Kol threw the mug back at Klaus. "I'll be off then, I'll be staying at the family mansion, and I'll keep you apprised of the Marcel situation. Make sure you find our girl, Niklaus."

When Kol left, Myriam turned to Klaus. "You do know that he's going to try to get New Orleans back, don't you?"

An amused smile danced across Klaus' lips. "I do."

"And?"

"And I have faith in my brother to hand it over to me once he's successful. Kol doesn't like running things. He merely wants to be a hero to the witches."

"You don't like running things, either, Klaus. You merely enjoy the power that comes with the seat."

"Fine, I'll have Elijah in charge."

Myriam let out a snort before reading back the text from Alina. "They're on their way to Mexico now."

~o.O.o~

After eating, feeding and changing cars, Calypso curled up on the backseat of their vehicle and continued to nap. She was still so tired, and it was out of character for her to look so worn, so beaten. Katherine could only imagine what the girl remembered; it was likely that most of her memories were from before Katherine even met her.

Thirty years was a long time, but it was easy to forget that there was a 120-year history before their meeting. Katherine kept driving, not thinking about where they were going, merely driving and not stopping for anything. On occasion, the car would fill itself with primal screams coming from the back seat and when it happened the first time it took everything in Katherine's power to keep the vehicle on the road.

So raw. So much pain.

It took them another day and a half to get to Nicaragua to an area called Paso Caballos. There was a diner there, and Katherine figured it was a good place to rest up a little. The beach was gorgeous. Calypso seemed to be in better spirits as well.

They ate and then Katherine compelled a few people for their towels so they could laze about on the beach; Calypso wasn't on edge, more reserved, but Katherine was confident that she wouldn't leave her should she accidentally doze off.

"Still not going to tell me your real name?"

"Do you want them to find us?" Calypso retorted in the same tone of voice Katherine had used. "I'm sorry, Katherine, but if we want to die, it's better to end things ourselves."

It was slightly disturbing to hear her talk like that. Everything used to be fine. "I'm sorry, but who are you and what have you done to my chickpea?"

Calypso looked over to her and sighed. "My apologies, Katherine," she murmured. "I don't mean to…" she scooted over on her towel and put her head on Katherine's chest. "I don't even know who I am anymore."

"We'll figure it out, I promise," Katherine kissed the top of the girl's head.

"I hope so," she muttered before looking up at her. "Maybe we could find another witch who could do the same Circe did to me? Find out more?"

"Why?"

"Because I want to know. I am aware that the Cullens are bad people now, but there's still a yearning inside of me who wants to go back to them. I want it to stop," the girl said in barely a whisper. "Even now, talking like this, so freely… it feels wrong. I feel conflicted."

"But it feels good, doesn't it?"

"Does it have to feel good? Because I could make it feel good for myself if you like?"

Katherine caressed the girl's back and sighed. "Don't do things you don't want to do. You have a choice not to do things. If you don't want to do it, then don't. I won't get mad. For now, let's just enjoy the warmth of the sun for a couple of hours before we continue our way."

Calypso nestled underneath Katherine's arm and closed her eyes. The sound of the waves of the ocean beating the shore was enough for her to eventually calm herself and noticed that Katherine had dozed off. Calypso wanted to find another witch to help her unlock her memories, her earlier memories mostly. If that was even possible.

How could a girl - she - end up the way that she had? Was there something faulty about her that Dr. Cullen thought deserving of his pity? Did he fancy her for himself, perhaps? If he had, why had he given her to Edward like he had in her memory? Who had she been before ending up with Dr. Cullen?

She had spoken to Ms. Jenkins about her grandmother. She remembered that she was being taught how to cook, but she couldn't remember her grandmother's face. Where had her parents been? Was the name she remembered as her own even her own? Katherine obviously didn't like her behavior, and Calypso wasn't sure she liked it either. Could she simply forget what had been unlocked inside of her and be the person Katherine wanted her to be?

She was going to try. She didn't want to be a mean person; she wanted to be kind. She wanted to be helpful and use the abilities that Dr. Cullen had given her for something good. "Katherine?" She whispered as she looked up, but didn't get a response. Of course not, the vampire had been driving for two days straight, and while vampires could do without sleep, sometimes it was nice to crash.

But wouldn't it be nice to tell Katherine that she wanted to find an orphanage or something and make those children feel anything other than despair? Calypso had the means to do so, and it was something that she wanted before they'd continue to run as far as they possibly could.

Calypso closed her eyes for one second, just one second, and then her entire world collapsed. Katherine was cold and gray, and a large stake was stuck in her heart. She frantically tried to remove the stake, and when she did, it didn't seem to have any effect. Katherine was just dead. Gone.

It was only then she realized that two sets of feet were standing next to the body and she looked up to see the face of Emmett Cullen. Calypso could hear her heart pound in her chest as she scrambled to her feet and started to back away from him.

"Don't worry, princess," Emmett said kindly, holding out his hand as he smiled at her. "Katherine was wrong in taking you away. She only got what she deserved. It's in her contract."

Calypso swallowed hard as she continued to move backward. She tried to influence Emmett in perhaps leaving her alone, but all she could feel were a lot of negative emotions. Bad ones, and he wasn't hiding it.

"Come, let's get you home. Edward can't wait to see you again. He was worried sick that something might have happened to you!"

She could try to run, but he would be faster. She could try to fight, but he was a lot stronger than she was and without Katherine to feed off of, she was as strong as a regular human being. Even if she'd manage to run away from him and escape, where would she go? It wasn't as if she could drive a car herself! If she'd be taken home, she'd be rebooted or worse. And while she had thought of it as an option before, now that it was going to happen she felt fear. There was panic and fear in her bones, and she couldn't shake it.

"What's wrong, princess? Did something happen to you? Did they damage you?"

Maybe appealing to Emmett would help her. He was only doing his job for Dr. Cullen, wasn't he? He'd never hurt her or even touched her inappropriately. He knew she was Edward's. "Please, Emmett," she said hoarsely, tears streaming down her face. "Please don't take me back there. Dr. Cullen does bad things."

"I know," he said, gently taking her hand and smiled at her. "It's alright, princess, I know you're scared, and I promise I won't take you back home. You'll be safe with me, I promise."

"Really?"

"Have I done anything to hurt you?"

"No."

"Then trust me on this, okay?"

"But you came to take me home. You killed Katherine because she broke her contract and-"

"Shh," he pulled her closer and hugged her tightly. "It's going to be alright. Come, it's only a short drive to the airport. You'll be safe soon."

Calypso had expected it to be worse, but Emmett seemed to know exactly what she was afraid of. He was aware that Dr. Cullen was a bad guy and he wasn't going to take her to him. That was good. She had heard horror stories about Emmett, that he would kill a girl without reason, but he had just proven that his kills were justified.

Katherine had broken her contract. Katherine took Calypso away and made sure that she couldn't fulfill her contract with the Cullens. Calypso was in so much trouble that she hoped that Emmett would keep her safe and not return her to Dr. Cullen.

Nodding, she allowed Emmett to guide her to the waiting car as she looked over her shoulder to Katherine's body. "Goodbye, Katherine," she murmured. "Thank you for taking care of me."


	4. Remove

A/N: A gentle reminder that this is a sequel to a story I wrote called The Vampires Are Coming and that due to its content it can only be found on my website! xx Buggy

"What do you mean you can't go to pick her up?"

" _I'm not going to drive through Mexico, Myriam. I do a lot, and there's a lot that doesn't frighten me, but even I have my limits. I'm not going to cross into Maria's territory for some girl."_

"I'm going to withhold your payment," Myriam replied angrily. "Who's going to get her?"

It was quiet on the other end of the line. " _I haven't seen any of your team. Emmett drove through Mexico to Nicaragua and is going to take her back by plane. He truly is fearless."_

"That's not saving the girl!"

" _My apologies. I'll do what I can when they get back."_

"You've never disappointed me, Mr. Whitlock. And now you do just that when it truly matters."

" _For what it's worth, she's the princess; I doubt they'll hurt her much upon her return."_

Frustrated, Myriam hung up the phone and downed her glass of wine. "We had her, and now we don't."

"Since when do you work with a Cold One anyway?" Klaus had been surprised when listening to the phone call. "Since when are they trustworthy?"

"This one is, Klaus," she snapped at him, refilling her glass but with something stronger. "I recruited him specifically for something like this, and he works well within the limitations he's been given in his situation. His pretend girlfriend is a seer and all."

Klaus was slightly amused by the short fuse his love had been gifted with. "You never told me you had someone on the inside."

"Because you don't need to know everything, Klaus."

"Can't he tell us where they'll be taking her so we can intercept them?"

Myriam let out a sigh. "Sadly, it doesn't work that way. And calling the service to request her won't work either, they're smart."

"This is unacceptable, Myriam!" Klaus shot at her as he grabbed his phone. "I'm going to call Kol to see if he can do something about it because frankly, your team and now your mole, has failed us a lot since Katherine took Calypso away from here!"

"Klaus!" Myriam snatched his phone out of his hands. "As much as I applaud your tenacity in saving this girl, perhaps we aren't meant to."

"Nonsense! I never figured you for a quitter, Myriam," he growled as he tried to get his phone back. "I made that girl a promise."

"And it's likely that once we do find her again that she won't remember," she said sadly. "Maybe we should let this one go; we can't win all the time. We did what we could. We should focus on what we can do, and that's making sure that New Orleans will be yours again. We still have girls inside this building that require our help as much as Calypso."

"I made that girl a promise, Myriam. I never break my word!"

"Liar," she spat at him. "How many times had we planned on meeting up somewhere safe and you canceled at the last minute?"

"You're my lover; you don't count."

"The hell I do!" Myriam said as she smacked him, hard. "I should matter more than a promise you've made to some random girl! So if you can break a promise with me, then you can do it for her too! She won't remember, I do!"

"If it weren't for her, I wouldn't be here."

"Exactly!"

Klaus growled. "I do not tolerate this kind of behavior, Myriam."

"You know where the door is, but don't be surprised I'm not letting you in again!"

He kissed her, hard, before exiting her office and headed towards the back door. He was going to have to spend the night in the mansion with Kol, give them both a chance to simmer down and look at the situation with fresh eyes. Klaus knew that Myriam was just as frustrated as he was when it came to this girl, despite her obvious programming, Calypso was something special. He saw it, Myriam saw it, and hell, even Kol was fascinated with her once he got passed her influence.

This wasn't the first time that he and Myriam had a spat like this. Things would turn out alright in the end. Sometimes two similar personalities would collide. They were probably both being very infantile right now. Tomorrow they'd kiss and makeup.

~o.O.o~

"Hello, princess, welcome home," Edward greeted her as he helped her out of the car and put an arm around her. "Quite the adventure you've had."

Emmett had lied and that made her angry. She was hurt. The only person she could trust was dead and now she was back at the Cullens. She was going to be hurt even more. Perhaps she could pretend everything was alright so they wouldn't hurt her and put her back to work? She smiled up at him, the brightest smile she could think of, her influence showing nothing but love and affection to him, it was something that Edward liked. "Katherine broke her contract."

"Why am I not surprised?" Edward smiled at her and planted a kiss on top of her head. "It'll be good to have you home for a little while. To have you all to me while we find you a new handler. Or perhaps you'd like to stay here? Where it's safe and no one can hurt you?"

"I'd like that very much, thank you, Edward." The idea repulsed her. The pain from her memories resurfaced again, and she tried hard not to throw up. She needed to swallow it.

Edward eyed her curiously, noticing the subtle changes in his pet. "Emmett said you were damaged, is that true?" He kept his arm firmly around her as he lead her through the building. "What did they do?"

"I'm fine, Edward," she smiled at him. "There was a witch who tried to hurt my head, and it didn't work. What would you like me to do for you?"

"I want you to stop lying," he bit at her. "You're not fine. I can hear it in your voice." He stopped them then, in the middle of the hallway where all the employees could see them. Edward firmly grabbed her arms and narrowed his eyes on her. "Tell me the truth. Are you damaged?"

She could feel the water burn behind her eyes. "Please don't take me to Dr. Cullen," she whispered as she looked at him. "Please."

"You're pathetic," he spat as he threw her to the floor and grabbed her hair to drag her to Carlisle. "You're broken and miserable. I don't like that. I'm very disappointed in you, slave," he looked down on her as he dragged her along. "Until you're fixed, you're nothing but a slave to me."

"Please!"

"Shut up!" Edward kicked her in her side before he dragged her into Carlisle's laboratory and nearly flung her into his sire's arms. "She's broken!"

Carlisle blinked as he helped the girl to her feet and looked at his son. "That's unfortunate, Edward," he said calmly. "I'm going to assess the damage and see what I can do." He then turned his attention to the girl and gently smoothed her hair. "Don't you worry, dear, you're going to be alright, no matter how long it takes."

"I don't-"

"Now, now," he soothed her as he directed her to the assessment chair. "Don't talk back, princess, that's very unbecoming, and I do not tolerate that. It's up to you if I'm going to be nice about it or not."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Cullen," she replied softly as she got out of her clothes and quietly crawled into the chair. She could feel her heart rate increase; a knot was forming in her stomach, and she was close to tears. Resisting him would only result in pain. More pain. She wasn't sure what she wanted anymore. She felt so confused. But she shouldn't be. She was home. This is what she'd known for so long, and these were the people she could trust. "Katherine's dead."

"How unfortunate," Carlisle replied as he started to put electrodes all over her body. "How does that make you feel?"

"Sad. I cried when Emmett took me to the car; I didn't want to leave her on the beach. I didn't want her to die."

"You shouldn't feel anything about her," he replied gently. "As I've told you many times over; your handlers are supposed to take care of you and do what you want within the usual perimeters. You shouldn't feel anything outside of what you've been hired to do."

"She took me away, and that's bad."

"Exactly, good girl."

She beamed at him then, that funny feeling of him being proud of her warming her body. "Are you going to hurt me?"

Carlisle let out a breath and nodded. "Unfortunately I have to; I suspect that whoever damaged you hit your emotions and your sense of self-preservation, although it's not that bad in your case, we don't have to start from scratch." He was looking at a monitor for a very long time, and she kept quiet. Absolutely quiet, knowing that he hated it if she moved. "Tell me, do you still have Katherine's blood in your system?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Of course not," he sighed and caressed her hair, not looking at her but at the monitors instead. "The results I'm getting are confusing," Carlisle said as he kept brushing her hair; she liked that. "I'll have to dig a little deeper than just using these machines."

He wasn't hurting her, yet, and he had said that it was going to hurt. She knew that he was going to get to the truth eventually and as he turned to walk away from her, she grabbed his wrist tightly. "I know what you've done to me." What the hell was she doing? Was this some misguided bravery? What purpose did it serve only for her to be in more pain than anticipated? Surely he was going to hurt her over and over again. Fry her brains into submission again.

She was stupid.

"I never made you forget, princess; it's you who compartmentalized it inside your head, blocking it out." He didn't seem surprised or hurt or offended by her actions.

"What do you mean?"

"Your brain works different from others, this is why you're our best entertainer," he grabbed a chair and sat down next to her, holding her hand in his. "I'm not going to defend myself and tell you that I've never hurt you as I worked with you because I have and in all honesty, I loved every moment of it. It was when you stopped reacting to me that I decided to take it a step further, push you harder, hurt you more. It's almost as if the immortality I gifted you with has made your mind a fortress."

It made sense. Somewhat. She was appalled by his blatant admission of severely hurting her.

"I won't get mad, princess, I know it wasn't your decision to run away with Katherine and that she took you away instead. But what happened? Where did you go and who damaged you?"

"She calls herself Circe."

"Damn," he cursed and let go of her hand, pushing himself away from her. "I know enough," Carlisle's voice was hard, then. No kindness in his voice anymore. "She broke into your fortress and opened it slightly, didn't she? The agony you must be in. I'm so sorry, princess, but it's only going to get worse from now. I'm going to have to flush your system from your gifts. You're still going to be immortal, but everything else that makes you so special is going away. And then…"

She felt how her face drained from all of her blood at the realization of what his words and his actions meant. "You're going to reboot me."

~o.O.o~

She had lost count by day five after Dr. Cullen had moved her to a dark room with no windows and no sources of light. The compound that he had used to flush her system and rid it of the gifts he had given her had hurt. It had gone everywhere. Her veins. Her kidneys. Her heart. Her brain. Her eyes. Even now, she could still feel the after ache in the hair follicles on top of her head. Her long hair weighing down, pulling on the follicles and her head. It was maddening.

She knew that Dr. Cullen was going to start retraining her soon; it worked best without her unique gifts, and he had explained that it was in her best interests. She had to mend the crack in her mind fortress to be whole again. What had happened to her was not her fault, but he wasn't happy with her at all. She wasn't perfect anymore. She wouldn't ever be perfect again because he simply couldn't use the same serums on her that he previously had; her body would reject them now.

Her immortality didn't come with pain suppression. Dr. Cullen had explained that it was mostly her handiwork, but that he had given her something to make it easier to deal with. This caused her to be asked to go over to the places of brutes; she wouldn't feel a thing; she'd just laugh it off when needed. He wasn't going to be able to return that to her.

The way she could tap into someone's essence, their energy, to figure out what they wanted, what they needed, and then to manipulate it so that they would forgo on their principles was not going to be returned, either. She felt sad about it, because she was certain that it would have been a great gift with helping people in need. As with this gift; her strength was gone too.

For the last 30 years, she had loved it to have Katherine as her handler because Katherine was strong and she tapped into that when she needed to get the upper hand over one of her clients. No more. Katherine was no more. Calypso was now at the mercy of whomever she was going to be handed to.

With the loss of this gift, to manipulate other people's thoughts and feelings, the ability to tap into their brain to change their perception of her had changed as well. Who knew that so many people liked brunettes? She was a natural blonde, how was that going to work?

Dr. Cullen had explained why. She was the oldest of his creations; created by the means he had available to him back in the day. Her gifts were made out of serums. They'd stick, as long as she wouldn't be treated with the compound used to flush her system. However, the compound would latch onto individual molecules in her body and stay there for at least a hundred years, preventing him from returning her gifts if he wanted her to go back to work soon.

However, science was far more advanced these days - something he had had a hand in advancing - and he had asked her permission to try something he hadn't tried before because he knew that she was the only one who would be able to handle it. She made him proud, so proud. She didn't have a choice in the matter to give her permission; she was at his mercy, but it was sweet of him to ask.

The dark room was nice. She couldn't hear anything and couldn't see anything. It was peaceful. She liked it there. Still, the memories that Circe had unlocked inside of her plagued her. Dr. Cullen had only done that to help her, which he explained. There was no doubt that he had asked her for permission for that aswell, so what had gone wrong? Why did it feel so bad?

The door opened, and she could see Edward's features in the light. Immediately she put her head down and shifted, so she was in his favorite position, ready for him to use her if he wanted, but all he did was spit on her and leave again. It made her feel unwanted. Broken. Sad. She was defective. His brief visit left her with a sour taste in her mouth. He didn't like her anymore.

~o.O.o~

Alina and her team had brought what had remained of Katherine home. While Myriam hadn't liked the woman because of what she had done to Klaus in the past, the loss of someone who was in trouble still hit her. She could see the same with Klaus; there was a hint of grief and anger on his face, and he was quietly seething in his chair with a larger glass of bourbon. They were going to burn her remains in the Bayou later that night.

After returning Katherine's body, Alina and her team went out to act upon a hunch of a possible location for the Cullen's Escort Service. They also informed Myriam that the trip could be costly, Mainly because if they weren't successful, the team was going to try to set a trap by hiring a Cullen whore, pretend it's real and have sex and whatever, before they'd follow the car back. By doing this away from New Orleans, they hoped that whoever was on the other end of the call wouldn't know it was a trap.

Myriam had only agreed to it because not Klaus, but something else had changed her mind to rescue the girl, if only to satisfy her own curiosity. She looked up from her computer to her lover and smiled. "Can I borrow your magnificent mind for a moment?"

He got up and stood behind her before wrapping his arms around her. "What is it, love?"

Myriam pointed to her screen where there was a screenshot of Calypso from one of her security cameras from a couple of days ago. "What do you see?"

"I see our girl."

"I know, what does she look like?"

He didn't know what Myriam was aiming for. "Security cameras can't be influenced by her gift, what we're seeing is her true self. The girl that I've seen before. Blonde, looking incredibly young. Perhaps too young to be immortalized. Much like Rebekah. Should this girl ever return to a healthy sense of self, or at least a little bit, I'm afraid we'll going to have to deal with a stroppy teenager, much like my sister."

Myriam let out a snort. "I doubt that."

"Why are you asking me?" He put his head on her shoulder as he kept looking at the screen. "Even if she's 17 years old, she's been that way for at least 150 years."

"I'm asking because now I want you to look at something else," she changed the picture of that of her inside man. "He was 19 years old when he was turned. He spent a few years here in the club as part of my security team while he tried to get his life back on track, around the same time I learned of an escort service with extraordinary whores. He offered to go in to keep an eye on things. Big heart. Empath. Remind you of someone?"

He blinked when he saw the resemblance with Calypso. "You think they're related?"

"Either that or one of them is a doppelganger gone wrong. I've instructed Alina to take everything with her should they find the headquarters. I want to know for sure."


	5. Heist

Dr. Cullen was ready for the second phase of fixing her. He was giving her a treatment with the DNA of someone else; a Cold One. She wasn't that smart, but her clients were and she remembered a conversation with a scientist who told her that the DNA of dead things were used to find out who they were by the police and rarely used in medicine. Science, sure, but not medicine.

Then again, Calypso knew she was Dr. Cullen's favorite science project, what he did was mad science and not anything related to medical things. But he was so proud of her to endure the pain of the procedure, and that felt good, so the pain was not that bad. Tubes were sticking out of her body at the weirdest parts, but perhaps to make sure the procedure only had to be done once. To maximize her discomfort. She wasn't sure what Dr. Cullen wanted from her anymore.

While she was hooked up onto those machines, he went over her training with her, and she answered appropriately like she always had. Her time in the dark room on her own had made her stop questioning everything, especially Dr. Cullen's intentions. Everything he told her, everything he explained made sense. She was resigned to her fate now; her self-hatred would only be fuelling her passion in her job. Who ever in their right mind would have agreed to all of this?

She must have been in such a bad shape to have ever agreed to this. She had tried asking Dr. Cullen about her life before him, but he told her that it wasn't important. It was more important to live in the here and now, and that he was incredibly proud of her for agreeing to go through the procedures again. Her old life wasn't something she should keep herself with; it was over 150 years ago, and everyone she knew and loved was now dead.

Dr. Cullen was right yet again. The only one who truly cared for her was him.

She felt naked without the gifts he had given her, she wasn't sure what to feel, how to act apart from what she was being taught. She believed that he had made a mistake, though, as she could feel some emotion coming off of him but she couldn't quite place it. Her gift usually told her what the feeling was and how to exploit it, but now she wasn't sure. She was lost.

She didn't dare to tell him that she was still feeling his emotions. He'd get mad or disappointed, perhaps, because he had failed. Dr. Cullen never failed. He promised her that Edward was going to take care of her after he was done and that he had something special in mind for her, to celebrate her return. Calypso couldn't wait.

Just as he was pulling out the tubes, a loud crashing and banging could be heard. She wasn't supposed to react to it because she was safe with Dr. Cullen, but something was off with him, he was alerted, alarmed and quickly removed all of her tubings. "Princess, I don't have time to stop the bleeding, but why don't you go to our panic room and clean yourself up?"

"Of course, Dr. Cullen," she replied as she slid off the bed, feeling a little light headed as she stumbled towards the door on the far side of the room, safe behind Dr. Cullen's back as he had taken on a defensive stance while pressing the panic button on his phone. There was no doubt that Emmett would come soon. Calypso didn't like Emmett; she needed to make herself scarce, so she didn't have to see him.

Once she was in the panic room, not bigger than a janitorial closet, and closed the door behind her, sliding the deadbolts in place before turning on the light and finding the medical equipment to start cleaning herself up. She wasn't scared; the Quileute wolves would try to raid the building every once in awhile after their wounds had been patched up. It wasn't the first time she had seen the inside of this particular room, and likely not the last.

The banging and crashing came closer; shouting. Not Dr. Cullen's voice and wolves didn't yell. Had the Cullens made new enemies that she wasn't aware of? How was that possible? They mostly kept to themselves and all contracts made between a client and them was rock solid. If anything, the client had to be afraid of them.

New enemies were scary. She could feel Dr. Cullen's fear tremble inside her body, but there was also something else. Feelings coming from someone she recently had sex with. She couldn't quite place them all, but the most important one being anger. She knew what anger felt like. Anger and fear. Disappointment. This person was incredibly angry.

"Mr. Mikaelson, do I have to remind you that Myriam and your brother didn't want you to kill anyone?" A female voice sounded.

Mikaelson. Calypso gasped as she dropped what she was doing and crawled into a corner, out of sight. She remembered them. They were the reason she was damaged now, the reason why Dr. Cullen tried to rebuild her. Her heart was beating in her throat. She was fearful; she knew that Dr. Cullen couldn't take on a Mikaelson vampire. They were older, faster and vengeful. While their concern for her had been genuine, she didn't need it; it was unwanted.

Was this Mikaelson here to take her back? She didn't want to leave, and they had to leave them alone. Getting to her feet, she grabbed a broom and broke it in half over her knee. Regular vampires didn't like stakes. She wasn't going down with a fight. Dizzy or not, if that door would be broken, she was going to fight.

~o.O.o~

Myriam's cold one had managed to shoot her a message with their location. Myriam was pissed to find out that all this time, they were operating from an inconspicuous looking warehouse in Baton Rouge and upon hearing that, Kol took off. He was joined by Myriam's A Team to get into the building and cause a lot of damage while their hacker destroyed their computers - but not after getting all the information off of them - and collecting the paper files on every single girl they had.

He compelled a handful of girls to leave and never to come back, to live their life unburdened and he was surprised it worked; it was evident that none of these girls had had the same treatment as Calypso. As Alina sent her team out, the orders were to take any other girl back to New Orleans for aftercare.

Kol just followed Calypso's scent; it hadn't been too hard to find her as there was only one laboratory area. There wasn't supposed to be any killing. Death was merciful, taking everything away wasn't, and he liked that idea very much. To destroy everything the Cullens built. Take their money and give it to charities or divide it between the girls into new bank accounts; payment for their years of having worked for the Cullens. Myriam was going to handle that.

All Kol needed to do was to get the girl that had fascinated both him and his brother. Alina had Carlisle Cullen on his knees, his hands behind his head and peacefully gave himself up. Willingly. Much like Myriam's cold one had suspected he would. Calypso was close. Kol could still smell her. It didn't take long to find her, though.

What point was there in hiding when a trail of blood lead to your hiding spot?

He rattled the door, finding it locked which wasn't a problem for him. Taking a step back, he used his strength to kick it down, revealing the girl standing in front of him, all bloody like a naked warrior princess. She was naked. And she was brandishing a stake. She was armed but not dangerous.

"Hello, darling, remember me?"

"Stay back," she warned him, holding up the stake. "I will not allow it to be taken away from my home again."

"I don't want to discuss this right now," Kol retorted, taking a step inside the room. "The way I see it, there are three ways I could get you out of here." She wasn't attempting to influence him, either it was gone, or she was pretending it was gone. "One; you come with me peacefully. Two; you could try to push that stake into my chest, but I'm an Original Vampire, and it requires a particular kind of stake to put me down for good. Three; I will order you to come with me, and you can't do anything to stop me, but I'd rather not do that since it's likely that you're in your own mind for the first time since forever."

"I'm not leaving," she said determined and launched herself at him.

She wasn't a fighter. Without her gifts, she was a sloppy, weak human who happened to be immortal. He had her disarmed without any problems and threw the naked girl over his shoulder before finding a blanket and putting her down again to wrap her up and repeating the movement. Her tiny fists landing on his back repeatedly as he walked into the laboratory area. "Pack everything up, all his research, all his drugs. I have a feeling that we might need it for the girls."

"And what are you going to do?" Alina demanded as she looked at the Original vampire. "You got the girl and leave the rest to us?"

"Of course."

"You're an asshole."

"I know, darling," Kol winked at her. "Just make sure that Myriam gets all the files you recover. I'm taking this one straight to Débauche."

"What? Running?"

"She's immortal, she'll be okay," he shrugged as he sped off. It was a good thing that he had the girl flung over his shoulder and that her head was somewhere down his back as he ran because the girl had a set of pipes. Kol was pretty sure he'd have a ringing in his ears if he had carried her in his arms with her head on his shoulder.

She was shivering in his arms by the time he casually walked through the doors of Débauche, and he casually sauntered up the stairs, her screaming had stopped by the time they entered New Orleans, her voice sounding raw and hurt. Instead of hitting his back she had grabbed hold of his shirt to make sure she wouldn't fall off, but somewhere along the way she had lost her blanket.

He didn't care, and she didn't seem to care, either. She had resigned to her fate, or at least that's what it appeared; Kol knew that she was a crafty one, she had to be kept an eye on. He brought her to the room she'd previously been in, and Myriam and Klaus were on their heels. When he set her down on her feet, he could see that her wounds had closed and that all that remained of whatever Carlisle had been doing to her was dried blood.

Calypso's face spoke volumes. She was pissed.

It wasn't until Myriam closed the door, locking her in with three vampires, that she angrily stomped towards the bathroom to clean herself up. Kol grinned as he sat down on the couch. "She's got some spark."

"How is she doing?" Myriam asked as she leaned against the door. They had double checked to see if there were any possible ways if she could escape from her room, but other than the door, they had it covered. Myriam didn't like the idea of having to keep her locked in for a while, but this was the only way she could ensure the girl's safety.

"I caught her after Carlisle was done doing something to her," Kol replied. "Hiding in their 'panic room,' cleaning herself up. She wanted to assault me with a stake. That was cute."

"You reckon you were in time?"

"I think she's entirely human without any additives but a lot of deprogramming work ahead of her. It might be easier to compel her, but perhaps we should hold off with that for now. This might be one of the first times since forever that she's in her own mind and in control, despite her adoration for the Cullens."

"I agree, but perhaps it wouldn't be too bad to use compulsion. We just have to make sure that we don't fuck it up," Myriam retorted looking at both Mikaelson brothers. "It needs to be done delicately."

"I agree with Kol," Klaus spoke up. "We'll see how she does without compulsion, figure out how we can help her. Give her some time. Perhaps show her through our actions that she shouldn't fear us."

"While you do that, I'll await the arrival of the files from the warehouse. Jasper told me that Carlisle liked to document everything, so perhaps it'll make it a lot easier for us to help everyone."

"There are perhaps ten new girls coming this way, they were unable to be compelled, and I didn't bother to assess the rest of their mental state. They weren't my priority," Kol replied with a shrug. "I'll make sure she gets some rest on her return from the bathroom."

"You're not going to take advantage of this girl, Kol," Klaus growled. "I swear, if you-"

"Nik! I do have the capability to care, you know. People actually like me. I can't help it that you never get to see that side of me because we're always fucking shit up. Witches like me, how do you think that happened? Because I was nice!" Kol spat at him. "Now, get out and wait for the others to come."

Klaus narrowed his eyes on his younger sibling.

"Nik, I give you my word."

"Let him try," Myriam was amused by the two brothers. While Klaus was right in not wanting to leave his brother alone with the girl, Kol was also right. From what she could tell, Kol had never been given the opportunity to show off this side of him, and he seemed to be more than willing to. She poked Klaus and pointed to the security camera. "Big sister is watching anyway. If he does pull anything, I'll break his dick."

Kol scrunched his nose. "I used to know a baby vamp like that. Her name was Isa, and she liked to break dicks."

"What happened to her?"

"I killed her. Nobody breaks my dick and gets away with it. Once is cute, twice is a menace."

Klaus grabbed his brother from the couch and threw him across the room. "You will not harm a hair on Myriam's head, do you understand?"

Kol scowled as he got back up on his feet, seeing Calypso peek around the corner of the bathroom. Rubbing his head, he looked at his brother. "Weren't you two supposed to leave?"

"Behave," Klaus pointed at his brother before he and Myriam left the room.

Kol let out a breath and walked to the closet to see if there were some clothes in it that Calypso could wear. While he had promised not to do anything, it was harder with her prancing around all naked. He found a pair of fuzzy pajamas and walked over to her. "Here," he said kindly. "These look comfortable enough."

Calypso curiously eyed the fuzzy garments in her hands. "It's pink."

"So?"

"I hate pink," she said as she looked at the offending pajamas in disdain.

"Okay, so now we know that you hate pink. Just put it on, I'll get you something else tomorrow," he smiled at her, turning around to give her some privacy. At least she was somewhat cooperating and vocalizing what she wanted.

"You put it on," she replied before he could feel her throw the pajamas at him.

"Fine," he turned around and undid his pants before handing it to her. He was wearing boxer shorts so he was pretty sure Nik wouldn't burst into the room and giving him another flying lesson. He pulled on the pink pajama pants and had to rip it just a little to get him inside of them, and it was fucking uncomfortable. His dick was in the way of the seam of the pants, but after a little bit of rearranging the goods, he was all right.

Calypso had put on his pants instead, and she was eagerly awaiting for his shirt, her hand was already out to grab it from him. Sighing, he pulled his shirt over his head before parting with it and squirmed into the tight fitting pajama shirt. "Happy?"

"You look beautiful," she said with a tiny smile on her face as she walked past him and sat down on the couch.

Kol glared up to the security camera and mouthed that if his brother was taking screenshots to send to their siblings, he was going to kill Myriam. He then turned around and walked over to the chair to sit down, his face pinching as the pajamas rode up his rear and cut into his groin. "Hi, I'm Kol Mikaelson. We've met before, but that was under completely different circumstances."

"Those pajamas look comfortable," she deadpanned, hugging the shirt she was wearing.

"Yes, would you like to try them on?"

"No," again, a small smile appeared on her lips. "They look good on you."

Kol stuck out his tongue to her. "Want me to tell me your name?"

"Calypso."

"Nope, not that name. Your real name."

She shifted a little uneasy in her seat, her head down looking at her hands that had now migrated to her lap. "I can't. I'm not allowed to."

"Darling, you're free of them now. As you and I are talking, their entire organization is being taken down. You're free. It's alright to tell me your name; they can't hurt you here."

"My name is Calypso," she said again, her head lifted and her eyes filled with fire. "You can't hold me here against my will."

"I got into these pink pajamas for you; you better give me something."

"Head?"

He narrowed his eyes on her. While it was tempting, she wasn't offering it willingly; she was offering it as a self-defense mechanism, and it was likely that she was going to bite into it before running off. "No. Aren't you tired after the day you've had? What was he doing to you anyway?"

Calypso shrugged. "Doing something to my body to change it, I suppose. Preparing it for something else. I'm ordinary now; I'm of no use to anybody like this."

"Nonsense," Kol huffed. "Surely there's something you like to do, and you're good at? Apart from great sex?"

"I like to cook."

"Oh, I've been told about your culinary prowess! Lemon pie, was it?"

She nodded then, the small smile she previously had returning. "Want me to make it for you?"

"How about tomorrow? For now, you rest up. Tomorrow we will take over the kitchen, and we're going to make all the pies you want, what do you think?"

"Promise?"

"It's a promise."

"Can I keep wearing this?" She tugged on the shirt and the pants, and he sighed before nodding. "Thank you," she replied with a smile before making her way from the couch to the bed. Kol watched her crawl into the bed and bury herself in the blankets.

He reluctantly got up from the chair, hearing the pants rip even further before quietly making his way out of the room dressed like an idiot. Oh, his brother was going to love this.

~o.O.o~

Klaus tried hard not to laugh when his brother entered Myriam's office wearing the bright pink pajamas. Kol had gone somewhere he would have never gone himself, and apparently, it had worked; the girl had settled. He felt slightly worried for Myriam, though, because despite his brother telling him not to take any screenshots, he didn't say anything about Myriam.

And Myriam happened to have Kol's phone as he had left it on her desk when he went to get Calypso.

"And sent! Oh, this is golden!" Myriam said as she dropped Kol's phone in his hands with a big smile on her face. "Your sister thinks you look like one of those My Little Ponies. Marcel tells you to come by his place for a change of clothes."

"Gee, thanks," Kol remarked sarcastically. "Thanks a lot."

"Oh, cheer up, Kol," Klaus mused. "You're right; nobody sees this side of you unless they're witches. This is one event to document!"

"Fuck off, Nik," he snapped. "I'll be back later. I'm going for a change of clothes and make sure that the kitchen upstairs is fully stocked for tomorrow."

"What's tomorrow?" Myriam asked, curiously. "That kitchen upstairs is fully stocked, you know."

"She likes to cook, and she hates pink. That's all I know. We're going to make pies tomorrow."

"Not just Lemon, I hope," Myriam flinched. While she had tasted the pie, she didn't like lemon at all. "Banana cream pie!"

Klaus groaned, knowing exactly what she wanted to do with that banana cream pie. "Do what you must, Kol. The other girls are en route here, and Myriam's team is waiting for them. We're expecting the first part of the paperwork to arrive shortly."

"Need help with that? Or can I continue sucking up to Marcel so that I can take this city back for you?"

He was quiet for a moment as he watched the security cameras, Calypso was still in bed, seemingly fast asleep. "I would prefer it if you'd stay here instead of going to Marcel after your… change of clothes and shopping. Help with sorting through the paperwork, finding your girl's. If she does wake up and panics, I want you to be here to soothe her."

Kol smiled proudly. He couldn't believe that his brother was trusting him with her, but he was glad that he did. Now that the girl had lost her special abilities, it was remarkably easy to be around her and relax. He couldn't wait to get to know her better, get her out of her shell more. "Very well. I'll be back in a bit then."


	6. Hello

By midnight, there were so many stacks of papers and laptops and hard drives that they had moved it all to the basement so that they had enough space to make different stacks. By name, year.

While what the Cullens did was appalling, but Myriam couldn't help but be impressed by the way that they documented everything. It was so tempting just to sift through it all and find Calypso's files and to have Myriam's team work through the night with the other files, but she didn't think that was fair. No, she, Klaus and Kol would make sure every girl had their pile and anything unrelated to the girls but related to the Cullen's business was on the other end of the basement.

Right now, the girls were a priority.

"I think I've found her," Kol said as he walked over to his brother carrying the handwritten journals. "I'm pretty sure that I've found her because there are drawings of her inside these journals."

Myriam sighed. Of course, Kol would drop everything after finding what was important to him. "Is it so hard to focus?"

"Yes," Kol replied as he walked up the stairs. "I'll be in her room, reading. And if she gets curious, I'll have her read it as well. This is her life."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

"Well, I do."

"Just give her the books, have her read them and have her tell you her story if she wants to."

Kol scowled. "We'll see." He had a plan. The first thing was showing her that 'contract' of hers. And then burn it. Perhaps that would give her the freedom to tell him her name. It wasn't so much of a contract; it was magically enchanted by giving her a set 'tally' of how many successes she had during her time with clients. It would go down if it was a success, but it may go back up in case there were negative reviews.

The contract was stupid. You cannot simply tell a person that they'd be free after serving out their contract. Sure, they were going up for auction and bought out (the thought alone unnerved him, this whole operation sounded more and more like slavery) but when the person who bought the girl dies, she has to go back and work for the Cullens again.

Had he, or his siblings who surprisingly used the Cullens' services at some point, known this from the start, they would never have allowed them to proceed any further. They would have been able to stop more girls from being treated this way. More girls saved from Dr. Frankenstein.

Carlisle Cullen had documented everything quite thoroughly, a part of Kol was afraid of what he'd find. Of what Calypso would find. Her name wasn't Calypso; it was Bella. The absence of her last name was curious, everyone had a last name, especially around the time she was born.

For now, he was going to go with Swan, as there was a swan imprint on the oldest journal. He knocked on her door before quietly getting inside, balancing the journals so that he didn't bump into things or would drop them to the floor and set them down on the table; the oldest on top.

He stuffed the contract in his pocket, and when he turned around, he was surprised to see her wide awake. "Not tired then, huh?"

"I may not be a vampire, and I may have lost the gifts that Dr. Cullen had given me to restore me, but I don't require a lot of sleep," she replied, still wearing Kol's clothes. "I see you've changed out of the pink?"

"I still have it, but I didn't plan on sleeping," he replied with a wink. "Too busy trying to organize all the paperwork Myriam's team retrieved from the building you were staying."

"I will go back, you know," she said as she got out of the bed and sat down in the chair opposite of him, eyeing the mountain of journals. "Light reading?"

Kol shrugged. "I thought you'd be asleep still and I needed a quiet place to read. I do my best focusing when I'm alone."

"Would you like me to leave?"

"No, darling," he barked out a laugh. "If anything, I am the one intruding, I should go."

"You can stay," she said quickly. "You have a good heart, Kol Mikaelson; I'm sure your actions of this evening were meant well."

"But?"

"But I want to go back home. This isn't my home."

He sighed and ran his hand through his hair. He fought his desire to kill her; he needed to be patient, that's all. "Darling, you don't have a home anymore by the end of the night. We're in the process of destroying the Cullens for everything they've done to girls like yourself."

"You mean, treating them well?"

"You believe that if someone hurts you and uses you as a guinea pig that that means they treat you well?" Kol countered, causing the girl to shrug. "Listen, I understand that you don't know any better, but trust me when I say that that's not the way to show affection to a person."

"Sex?"

"That's one way, yes, but not the most important way. It's kindness. Warmth. Fun. Laughter. Certainly not poking someone with sharp objects causing them to bleed." He took the contract out of his pocket. "I wanted to do this in the morning, but since you're wide awake right now, we're going to do this now."

"What's that?"

"Your contract. To be honest, it's not a contract, it's merely a piece of paper that makes you believe you had a choice with the Cullens, which you hadn't."

"I know, there was no way of escaping them. Katherine said as much."

He smiled at that. "There you go. Using the word 'escape.' Bit odd to use that word when you said they were treating you well, isn't it?"

She was quiet for a long time then, as if she was discussing this further inside her head. Her brow furrowed as she thought about his words and he thought that was adorable. "I understand you mean me no harm, Kol, but why this particular interest in me? As you said, more girls have come back from the building, and yet, here you are, with me."

"Because it all started when you crashed my mother's ball."

"My job."

"Tell me, did you ever get paid for your services over the last 150 years?"

"I was being taken care of; I didn't have a need for money. Besides, the Cullens needed it to take care of us all. Money doesn't matter," she got off the chair to grab the contract out of his hands. "Give me that; I'm going to need it."

"Why? As I said, there won't be any business by the end of the night," he got to his feet and climbed on top of the couch where it would be out of her reach for sure. "I wanted to do something else with this. Set you free was the first thing came to mind."

"No!" the girl joined him on the couch and was now jumping to try and reach the contract that he was holding above his head. While she had a panicked expression on her face, Kol was laughing as she kept jumping. "Stop it!"

"Isn't it fun? Jumping on the couch?"

She stopped jumping and her look changed from panicked to determined. A cheeky grin appeared on her face as she kneed him in the groin, causing him to double over and lowering the contract. She snatched it out of his hands and jumped off the couch, running to the bed.

~o.O.o~

Oh, perhaps it was silly that she had done that. She had hurt him in order for her to get her hands on her contract, but it was her life that he wanted to end. If everything he had said was true - and she felt like it was, Kol felt sincere - then the contract was the one thing that was keeping her tied to the Cullens.

Kol spoke the truth; she could feel it, and no doubt that everything she had learned had been the truth too; her memories that had been unlocked by Circe had been real. The pain was real. Dr. Cullen had hurt her immensely in the past week. "Are you confident that people don't hurt each other when they are treated well?"

"Well, from my experience I can tell you that the people you love will end up hurting you once or twice," Kol said after he had composed himself from her knee to the groin and sat back down on the couch. She felt grateful that he didn't go after her. "For example, you've met my family, right?"

"I know you all intimately, yes," she said with a small smile. "Apart from Klaus and Finn. Does that disturb you?"

"It was your job," Kol said, dismissing it with a wave of his hand. "I don't judge and neither do my siblings, however, we all care for each other. But we still hurt each other because we're siblings. We're a thousand years old, and we have a lot to squabble about. Sometimes conflict works as a catalyst to think clearly."

"There was no conflict at the Cullens. Dr. Cullen explained everything to me, what he was going to do. He was very calming."

"What about his son, Edfart?"

She tried hard not to burst out in laughter. Edward would have tried to kill her if she'd ever call him names! "Edfart," she winced before skittishly looking around to see if this was some practical joke and he'd storm in and hurt her for insulting him. "He uhm… he wanted everything to be perfect and predictable. He didn't like me broken."

"Were you his after you were done working?"

She nodded slowly. Why was she feeling shame?

"Did he feed on you?"

"My blood is my own." Edward's venom hurt, the memory that Circe had unlocked hurt. She remembered most of the feedings now, and it hurt. She'd been made to feel the pain but to ignore it, but she knew that if she'd allow herself, she'd feel the pain.

"But did he?"

Hugging the contract as she sat on the bed, she nodded again. "He was the only one who was allowed to feed on me. I can't die, you see. When he was a newborn, it was the most painful experience ever, but now that he's older, he occasionally feeds when he's too lazy to go out and bite an alligator or something."

"You didn't like it."

"I didn't like a lot of things that I've allowed myself to be put through, but I did it because I knew it was appreciated." She was quiet then, feeling the change in Kol's mental state but she couldn't figure out what it was. It wasn't anger or any other negative feeling, nor was it the feeling that made her feel at ease. "Which is why I want to go back, why I need to go back. Dr. Cullen can make me forget it all. He's made a life for me and to think that you're ruining him and his family… What will become of me?"

Kol made his way over to her and sat down next to her. "Well, you can start to shape your own life. Live the way you want. Do what you want, and not what someone else tells you to do."

"But I don't know how."

"That's what I'm here for," he smiled at her. "If you'd like, that is. I could show you the wonders of being able to live with no one forcing you to do anything you don't want to do."

"Like us making pies tomorrow or later today just for the heck of it?"

"Yes," Kol grinned and pointed at the contract. "Contracts are useless."

It wasn't as if she could read what was on it anyway. She'd never been taught to read as that would make her too smart for her own good, according to Dr. Cullen. The contract was useless, and she had a feeling that she could trust Kol. She remembered how lost he had felt when she was with him at his mother's ball. How he felt alone in his family and not appreciated. She appreciated him; he was making an effort - a calm effort - to make her see that it was alright to try something new, how scary it may be.

Sighing, she ripped up the contract. There was no turning back now. She didn't have to be scared anymore. From now on, she was going to be brave. "My name is Isabella Marie Whitlock."

"Nice to meet you, Isabella Marie Whitlock," Kol smiled brightly at her. She liked that smile. It made her feel all warm inside. "Now, let's celebrate your freedom by making those pies! I'm sure everyone would love a slice for breakfast!"

She giggled, then. If she had to be honest with herself, it felt strange to have ripped up that contract and spoken her name out loud. She had always feared that the moment she'd do that, hell would rain down on her and now nothing was happening. "Bella."

"Bella it is," he said as he picked up the pieces of the contract. "Let's burn this to make sure it disappears for good."

~o.O.o~

He was going to hate himself for this, but he had to compel her just a little bit to make her feel at ease, open to change. Of course, he had told her to forget that he had given her a nudge and she seemed to be doing fine. It was only a minor adjustment. Once he was confident that she wouldn't do stupid things, he'd remove the compulsion.

He took a dingy looking pot from one of the cupboards in the kitchen and tossed the bits and pieces of the contract in there before finding some flammable alcohol and doused the papers with them. "Ready?"

Bella was dancing around him to see what he was doing, but she had a goofy smile on her face. "Are you really going to set fire to it?"

"Near a water source. Don't worry; I won't set the building on fire. We've had enough excitement today." Kol transferred the pot to the sink before using a match to set the contents on fire. He could see the sparks of magic coming off of it and was disappointed that it looked like a simple spell that had been placed on it. Even if they hadn't been able to get all the girls out, a short spell would have easily broken all the contracts for good.

They both watched it burn in fascination, and when the paper had turned into ash, he opened the faucet to douse the flames and then rinsed the pot out. "How does that feel?"

"Great," she smiled as she turned away to gather her cooking supplies. He was surprised to see that she was still wearing his clothes, she had tied the belt quite tightly to make sure his pants weren't slipping off her hips, and she had made herself comfortable in his shirt.

"Don't you need to change into something more fitting?"

"Why? Does my appearance disturb you?"

"No, but those aren't your clothes."

She looked at him, narrowed her eyes at him and then this big smile appeared on her face. "They are now. Stop talking about my appearance. It doesn't matter."

He sat down on top of a counter and watched her work. Eventually, he started to tell her about his family, and he was curious if she'd remember anything about her life or if the meddlings of Carlisle Cullen had ruined her memory. Memory in itself was a fickle thing, because compared to the life span of vampires and other immortals, the brain was tiny and quickly filled up.

Most Cold Ones didn't remember much of their life before turning unless they were in the habit of journaling their life. Regular vampires like himself only wrote down what was important, in case they forgot, of course. He wondered what it was like for Bella, and that was why he talked to her about his family, what they did and what they had done. Perhaps it would make her feel comfortable enough to share.

Of course, shouldn't she remember anything, he'd just go to her room and grab the first journal that was written by Carlisle Cullen. He kept everything on her.

It was only after she put the first three pies in the oven and started to clean up to make room for another batch that she spoke up. "I had a grandmother who taught me how to cook. They had an eating establishment or something. I remember it being very crowded. Funny thing is that I remember having a grandmother, but I don't remember what she looked like or what her name was."

"What about your parents? Did you have any siblings?"

"If I had any siblings, don't you think they'd probably be dead by now?" She mused as she started to hand wash the mixing bowls by hand. "I know you're trying to make me talk about my past, see what I remember and all, but it doesn't matter. What's important is what is happening now."

"Yes, but a whole lot of who we are is who we were in the past."

"True," she said simply. "Consider me a blank slate then. We've established that my name is Bella and that I don't like pink but I like to cook, and I like comfy clothes."

"Although that belt doesn't look that comfortable."

"You're not wearing it," she said as she dried off the bowls and started to prepare for her next batch. "During my time at your ball in Mystic Falls, I did a bad thing," she eventually said. "It's likely that I need to apologize."

"To who?"

"Elena," she replied softly. "Katherine egged me on, but I was mean to her, and I don't want to be mean. I don't think I'm a mean person. Katherine wanted me to hurt her, and then I guess a part of me wanted to warn her about her involvement with vampires."

Kol blinked. That was surprising to hear. "You went against what you were hired for? Trained for? Oh, aren't you a little rebel!"

"I don't know what happened. After the second encounter that I had with you… with you showing genuine interest in me, not because of what I was or what I did, but me, as a person, I was a little rattled, I have to admit."

"Seriously?"

"I never get rattled when working. In a way, I'm glad that things developed like they have because I do not think that Dr. Cullen would have liked my behavior." Bella curiously eyed him. "You do have a way with people, Kol. You're gentle, and I believe not a lot of people have seen this side of you. It was enough to make me think."

He felt all shy all of a sudden. He didn't do shy very well. It was a sign of weakness. Something his siblings could exploit. "What happened?"

"After our encounter, I had Stefan. He… well. I thought your brother Elijah was quite wild, but Stefan was worse. I was frustrated with him, and Katherine decided to abuse that into me taking Elena to the stables and… well, I didn't hurt her, but I got angry. I'm not supposed to be showing negativity towards my clients, and truthfully, I think my behavior towards her was uncalled for."

Kol barked out a laugh. "I assure you, Bella, the little harlot had it coming."

"No, you don't get it. It was wrong. She's a human girl. I could have taken her to the barn without stripping her out of her clothes and stringing her up. I could have spoken to her like a normal person, not someone…"

"Whose life got ruined by a bunch of vampires?"

"I wouldn't call it ruined."

"And I wouldn't worry about it, Bella. Elena probably didn't listen anyway. If you look in the dictionary what trouble means, it's likely you find her name there," Kol replied with an amused smile on his face. "Besides, even if you'd call her to apologize, you'll only feel worse. She's more trouble than she's worth."

"Really?"

"Trust me on this, okay?" He smiled at her reassuringly. "And what do you mean by Dr. Cullen not liking that behavior of yours? What would have happened if he'd found out?"

"As I said, I wasn't instructed to show negativity towards my clients. Only when their essence wanted me to. I was talking badly about my experience, my own subconscious frustration with having ended up with the Cullens… I-"

Kol then realized something. "Wait, you knew that they were sick people?"

She smiled at that then. "No, Dr. Cullen and his family were lovely people. It was just that the work they had me doing wasn't particularly nice towards myself, but I did it because they were all so proud of me."

"But Bella…"

"Yes, Dr. Cullen changed me. Yes, Dr. Cullen made me do things for him that I didn't particularly like, but I did it because he was proud of me for doing it. You have to realize, Kol, I was with them for 150 years, it was my normal life. My normal. Your normal is to have fun, feed on people and trying to prove you're more than a monster to your family and my normal was doing what I was told. Having sex with people and using my gifts. Making those people feel better about themselves or even worse about themselves." When she saw the surprised look on his face, she sighed. "I don't know how I worked, exactly. But sometimes the gifts gave me the power to destroy a person."

"Did you?"

"A few times, yes," she looked so sad then, even more broken than she had appeared before. "I'm not proud of what I've done. It's not me."

"But how?"

She shrugged. "I don't know how. Not really. It was all instinctual, I suppose. I drew strength from whomever I was with or my handler, and I just did it. I did what I was told. What I was given from my client's head." Bella then jumped a few times, shaking her hands and legs. "Can we please change the subject and resume baking? What about pecan pie?"


	7. History

She had made about twelve different pies during the night where he mostly talked, and she listened. Apart from the handful of times that she mentioned her wanting to apologize Elena again. He insisted that she'll only feel worse after doing so, but he promised her to get Elena's phone number from Nik so she could apologize. He'd ease the fallout if needed.

For breakfast, Bella made them waffles and pancakes, but just for the two of them. They had done the hard work, and she was hungry. When his brother Nik and Myriam walked into the kitchen, however, he could see a change in Bella. She had gone from open to reserved, closed off, even. Curiously eyeing them as she stopped eating. And it didn't take Kol long to find out why. His brother was covered in blood.

"Nik?"

"We spent the entire night overseeing Myriam's team with the other girls from the warehouse. To assess them, to see how much help they needed. It took four bloody hours until one dared to mention to us that Alina; Myriam's most trusted soldier and whom you went to Baton Rouge with, was in fact also working for the Cullens."

"So you killed her."

"I felt peckish," Klaus said simply and shrugged before eyeing the pies. "That is a whole lot of pies. You've been busy, Calypso."

Kol looked at her, and she seemed lost, afraid. "Uh, Nik, why don't you take off that shirt of yours? You're scaring the locals."

"No," Bella said hastily, almost in a panic before taking a step closer to Kol. "It's alright; I'm not afraid."

"These pies look amazing," Myriam said as she eyed them all, ignoring the lemon one. They all smelled great, too. "No banana cream?"

"Did I have to make that? I didn't know, I'm sorry," Bella said, taking another step closer to Kol. "If you would have told me you would like one, I would have made it. I'm sorry."

"It's alright, little one," Myriam smiled as she eyed the pies. "The peach one will do just nicely."

"And what do we say when someone made food for you?" Kol reminded his brother and his girlfriend. It was still strange to consider Myriam Nik's girlfriend. Lifelong squeeze. Whatever. It was so unlike Nik, but then again, they were all surprising each other lately, weren't they?

"Thank you, Calypso," Myriam and Klaus chorused, a smile on their faces.

"And that's so not her name," Kol rolled his eyes at them. "We burned her contract."

"Oh, now I'm curious," Klaus cut off a piece of a cherry pie and put it on a plate. "What's your name then?"

"Bella."

"And where are you from, Bella?"

She shrugged as she casually moved her plate closer to Kol's. "Kol's theory is that my mind collapsed in on itself during my time with Dr. Cullen, but I don't see why knowing about my past is relevant. We're in 2011, not the late 1800's. I have to start over because you're taking away my home from me, so that all doesn't matter anymore, does it?" Her head then snapped up to look at Kol. "Can I please go to my room? I feel like I'm suffocating."

"Of course," he smiled at her. "Want me to come by later?"

She seemed to think for a moment and took a deep breath. "Now." She took his hand and tried to pull him out of the kitchen. "Kol…"

"It's just my brother and his girlfriend, Bella. She's the boss of this place and made it possible to get you-"

"He's very negative," she hissed. "It hurts."

He looked over to Klaus and saw that he heard her words as well. Klaus visibly relaxed. If you had lived as long as they had, you'd learn a trick or two to calm the mind. Pulling her closer to him, Kol softly squeezed her hand. "How's that? Better?" He had experienced her talking as if she had gotten a new gift or as if she was still with a gift a few times during the night, but he had believed it was impossible.

"What's happening to me?"

Klaus and Myriam shared a look between them; that didn't escape Kol's attention, either. "Her room, now," he told his brother as he brought Bella to her room. Whatever they were not telling, could be told in her room, in private. Not everyone needed to know about what was happening to Bella.

Damnit, they had such a fun night together, what a downer to end it this way!

Bella pointed at the journals on the coffee table that Kol had left earlier. "Do you think the answer is in there?"

"Doubtful, these aren't medical journals," Kol said as he sat down on the couch, surprised that she sat down next to him, not wanting to let go of his hand. While he had compelled her not to be afraid, he hadn't done anything else and was surprised by her behavior. If anything, his mind must have been the wilder one between him and his brother. Fighting the urge to feed; he was doing well, though. She had kept him entertained during the night while baking. "Or maybe a handful of them, those that pre-date the computer, but it's likely that a copy of them will be digital."

"Then what are they?"

"Your story. Where you've been, what you've been doing."

She eyed the journals with caution. "I remember a few encounters. Perhaps even most of them. Can we burn them like we've had the contract?"

"How about you decide after you've taken a look at it?"

"I can't read, Kol."

He smirked. "Fine, then how about you decide after I've read them to you? Later, after Myriam and Niklaus confess what they know about what's happening to you."

"I might need another nap," she replied as she snuggled up to him. "I'll nap and then you can leave and have some blood."

"After."

"After," she agreed.

What if Nik wanted to pull something stupid though? Something Bella wasn't ready for? "You know what? I'm going to get us something to drink, and I'll be right with you." He wanted to know this information before Bella did, that way he could anticipate her behavior.

He left the room and bumped into his brother and Myriam who had a Cold One in tow on the stairs. "Oh, hell no," Kol exclaimed. "What's this?"

"The last medical entry in the medical journal was about how Carlisle used Jasper's DNA to try and fix Bella," Myriam explained. "It's possible that she received his gift by doing so. He's the only one who can help her deal with it."

Kol scowled as he sized up the Cold One. "Kol Mikaelson, I don't believe we've met," his voice sounded slightly venomous. Protective, even. "I know you're the reason we were able to save those girls, but if my brother thinks I'm stupid enough to allow a Cullen to help this girl, then he's very wrong."

"Good thing I'm not a Cullen, then," Jasper replied. "Jasper Whitlock, pleased to meet ya."

"Whitlock?" Kol narrowed his eyes on the vampire, observing him. He looked like Bella, didn't he? "You have a sister or something?"

"I knew it!" Myriam said with a wide grin. "See, Klaus? We're not the only ones who think that they look alike!"

"Not just that, darling," Kol said, not removing his eyes from the Cold One. "Bella's last name happens to be Whitlock as well. So, again, do you have a sister?"

"I used to have one, yes," Jasper replied truthfully. "She disappeared when she was 16 years old, and she was my twin. Why? Do you believe that Bella's my sister?"

"I wouldn't be surprised," Kol muttered as he tiredly rubbed his face. "Look, she's not ready to come face to face with someone who she's worked with in the past, no matter your intentions or whatever your… relationship. I'll figure something out as what to say about what's going on - likely the truth - but I don't think we all should crowd her right now. It's too soon."

"I agree," Jasper replied with a nod. "If I had known why Myriam wanted me to escort her and Klaus up to the girl's room, I would have refused. It's been only two days; she needs some time to settle in."

"And not wanting to go back to the Cullens all the time," Kol murmured, glad that he had found somewhat of an ally in the Cold One. "I'll have her rest, I'm going to eat something that's not human-made food, and when she wakes, I'll start reading the journals with her. To fill in the blanks. Perhaps learn that the two of you are related, without us speculating about it."

"I agree."

"And in the meantime?" Klaus asked, strangely surprised by how Jasper and his brother agreed with something. He would have thought that his brother would be more abrasive, more protective over the girl than he already was.

"And in the meantime, you and Myriam can completely focus on the other girls or, you know, finish what I've started with Marcel," Kol then smirked. "He may think that he's ill or something. I taught a few witches some magic spells that have nothing to do with ancestral magic and thus cannot be traced by his super witch. Every time he feeds, he starts to desiccate." He felt so immensely pleased with himself. Kol never liked Marcel much, and this was perfect torment. "Or starts bleeding from his arse, I do not quite remember what the witches and I have discussed…"

Jasper turned to Myriam. "He's sincerely willing to help the girl, and I believe he's the right person to help her," he nodded towards Klaus. "Despite his willingness, I highly doubt that Klaus is the right candidate."

"What's wrong with me?" Klaus said offended.

"You would compel her to behave, to be normal," Jasper said amused as he saw a smile appear on Myriam's face. "That's not what the girl needs right now after 150 years of meddling with her head, do you think?"

"You're just saying that because it's possible she might be your sister."

"I am not. If I were, I would have taken her away from you and brought her to a safe place myself."

"Even if you are, you're not taking her away," Kol growled and pointed down the stairs. "Go. I promised her I'd get a drink, I've been away long enough." He rushed into the kitchen to get her a glass of lemonade before heading back into the room. For a moment he couldn't find her, but then he saw this hump on the bed and stifled back a grin. Bella had wrapped herself in her blankets and had fallen asleep.

Setting the glass of lemonade on the nightstand, Kol made sure she was asleep before heading out again, to feed. Bella had been right, he was hungry and then some. While he could go for a while longer without having to feed, he was afraid that he might accidentally bite her. And yes, it wouldn't kill her, but he didn't want to betray her trust in him.

~o.O.o~

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Kol asked Bella as she cuddled up against him. He had brought in a pot of tea for them to drink after she woke up and she was still slightly sleepy after having slept for six hours.

"I think the sooner I know, the better I can move forward."

"You're feeling better then?" He smiled at her, and she looked up to him with an even bigger smile. "What?"

"I think that whatever Dr. Cullen has done to me has now fixed me. I don't feel all out of sorts anymore," she replied and sighed happily. "Back to my old self."

"Yeah? What about wanting to go back to the Cullens?"

Bella shrugged. "Should the opportunity arise, I'll think about it, but I believe that Katherine was right, I didn't belong there. It would be an insult to her memory if I'd continue to want something that's unattainable and not good for me."

He blinked at her sudden change of personality. "Darling, has anyone compelled you?" She sounded fine, like the girl he had spoken to at the ball, but not under the pressures of the Cullens, not having anything weighed down upon her, as if she was truly free - which she was, but he had a hard time accepting that it came from just a good rest.

"Dr. Cullen was always so proud of me that I could compartmentalize my feelings so well. I put all of that in a corner of my mind and locked it down. I shouldn't be afraid of my new life because you're with me and you are nice. You're kind, and you don't mean me any harm. I can feel that. You feel the same as Katherine had done."

"What's that like?"

"Like a warm, protective… bath, I guess?" she shrugged. "I don't know how to describe it. I had a better time figuring it out with the gifts Dr. Cullen had blessed me with. Now I just… feel, and I don't know what most of it means." She looked up at him and smiled at him. "Do you think that's because of the treatment?"

"Well, according to the medical journal that Myriam read, his treatment was based on someone else's DNA. He wanted to fix you, remember? He probably believed the best way to do that was by using a DNA strand that closely matched yours."

She thought for a moment. "Right, because any foreign DNA would be rejected by my body. I know this. Dr. Cullen explained it to me."

"Right, so do you have any idea who that could be?"

Bella shrugged. "I've been with the Cullens for 150 years. I highly doubt anyone is still alive."

Kol let out a snort. "I'm over a thousand years old, darling."

She narrowed her eyes at him, her gaze deadly. "I swear, if I find out you or your siblings turned a family member and cursed them with eternal life, I will find a way to kill you."

He swallowed hard. She was hot. Sexy. Wow. He believed every word she said, too. It wasn't a joke, nor was it meant to be. "I'm fairly sure it wasn't one of us, darling."

"I meant every word, though," she replied before settling against him again. "Read me my life's story then."

Kol took a deep breath, calming himself before he picked up the first journal and opened it. He had read the first few pages before he gave Bella the cliff notes. "Carlisle did his research; he made a shit ton of notes, and it looks like he'd been watching your family for at least five years before taking you. The family came to his attention because a fire destroyed a ranch, killing the parents and all of their livestock and the two survivors were you and your brother. You were found unharmed, not a mark on you from the fire. Your grandparents took you in the city where you were put to work; you as a maid, a cook, and your brother accompanied his grandfather to work on the railroad. Carlisle waited and watched patiently, seeing if you'd be snatched up by a man or not, but every potential suitor was run off by your brother. In 1860, Carlisle took his chance and took you."

"I had a brother?" She blinked at Kol. "Really?"

"His name was Jasper," Kol smiled at her. "From what I know is that you were taken when you were 16 years old and he joined the Confederate Army not long after that. To protect the way of life of the South, but also to try and find you."

"Really?"

"Yes."

"How do you know?" She sat up, then, and Kol could see the cogs in her mind work in overdrive. "Oh, oh, wow," Bella muttered. "Jasper Whitlock the enforcer is my brother!" The color drained from her face then. "Does he know? Did he know?"

"No, I don't think he did," Kol replied with kindness in his voice. "We believe that Carlisle kept it from him so he wouldn't take you away."

"Would he have done so? I mean, he seemed to be quite content with Emmett, making sure we all got home safe." She couldn't believe it; she had a brother, and he was still alive. Well, dead, but alive. And he, apparently was an asshole.

"He worked for Myriam, even managed to send some girls her way when they weren't looking."

Not an asshole. "Really?"

Kol loved the surprised look on Bella's face. "He's in this building, would you like to talk to him?"

"Yes!" She jumped up to her knees then, bouncing on the couch as she looked at Kol. "Please? I want to know if he truly is my brother, if he's good. I can feel that when I see him, I think. Please? Please?"

"You're not going to ask him to take you back?"

"Why would I do that? I owe it to Katherine, to you, to at least try this new life, don't I?" Bella was still bouncing on her knees. "Please?"

"Alright, but don't blame me when you get upset," he laughed as he kissed the top of her head and put the journal down before grabbing his phone. "I'll shoot Nik a message to send Jasper up, okay?"

"Just Jasper."

"Just him," Kol nodded as he sent the message before taking the journal again. "While we wait, shall we see if there's anything else in this journal that might be important?"

"You think there's more to find out?"

"Well, not much," he replied as he quickly scanned the pages. "Carlisle mostly writes about your beautiful mind, how you're so very clever. You really seem to listen to him when he explains things to you. He finds you brave, too. ' _Today the girl managed to get hold of a sharp object and tried to hurt me for taking her away from her family. It was highly amusing. She's a fighter; this might make things more difficult for me._ '"

Bella sat back down again and scrunched up her nose. "I don't remember doing that."

"I find it hilarious," Kol laughed as he kept reading those little incidents to her as they waited for Jasper and he found it disheartening that after ten years of being with the Cullens, nine years of immortality, she had given up on defying Carlisle. Or at least try to tease him with things while he tried to teach her things. When he looked over at Bella, she looked sad. "You were simply trying to protect yourself from the torment," he assured her. "Anyone would have done that."

"Even you?"

He thought for a second. "I don't know; I don't remember what I was like when I wasn't a vampire. Flashes, sure, but I highly doubt that even I would have endured this for that long, and that frequent. I suppose that turning into a vampire instead of merely an immortal human has its perks."

"You would have ripped their head off."

"Yes."

She was quiet for a moment, almost as if she was thinking about something. "Do you think I can be turned into a vampire still?"

"Why would you want that, poppet?"

"So I can kick some butt if I need to?"

Kol smiled at that. "Darling, as long as we're around, you have nothing to fear. We'll make sure that you won't get hurt ever again."

She let out a relieved sigh and nodded before she looked at the door. Cocking her head and narrowing her eyes at the door, Bella seemed to try and figure out who was behind the door. "It's okay; you can come in!" She called out before she scooted closer to Kol, to safety.


	8. Cracked Egg

"I don't understand him," Klaus sighed as he sent off Jasper to Bella's room. "First they both are telling us that it's not a good idea for a re-introduction and confront her with the fact that Jasper had been undercover, and now Kol says that Bella asked for him?"

"It's a different beast, Klaus," Myriam smiled at him from her chair. "If she asks, we're not forcing anything into happening."

"I know that," he spat, throwing his phone on the table. "I merely don't like it that he told us off first."

"Let Kol worry about the Princess, let us discuss the other girls," Myriam said as she opened a file. "The one that we named Michelle, or she named herself, is actually called Michelle, so that's a plus. She's been here the longest; she's not one of the girls we brought back this week."

"Well, that's good."

Myriam nodded. "A great thing about having all the files here is that we can also help the girls who were brought here before, and we have. Some of them have already left; some are willing to keep working for me in the club. Michelle has me worried, though."

His interest grew. Sure, those girls were of importance, mainly to Myriam, and he had her work with them while he made sure that everyone was safe, from a distance, but to have her discuss a girl who's been with her for quite some time like this was interesting. "How so?"

Myriam tapped on the file. "Let's go meet Michelle, shall we?"

Klaus followed her to the first floor where Michelle was sitting in the break room for the working girls. She seemed to be very comfortable and having fun with Abeebee; the girl who allowed Bella to grab a guy when she wanted to escape during lockdown. "Thank you, Abeebee," Myriam smiled at her, dismissing her with a nod. "Your beau is on a house call, but he'll be back in a bit."

"House call?"

Myriam only had to point to the floor above them for Abeebee to break out in a huge, welcoming smile. "Great, after he's done, I'm taking him home, if that's alright with you."

"Of course, just remain available."

"Gotcha," Abeebee grinned as she bounded out of the break room, with Klaus' stupefied gaze following her out. Was she dating Jasper Whitlock?

"Abeebee was a handler in the Cullen's organization and served out her contract safely. She was created by Emmett for that purpose, and Jasper made sure she got out, after the memory wipe," Myriam explained to Klaus. "They've been mates ever since."

"Memory wipe?"

"Even handlers get medical procedures done at the end of their run, to make sure nobody talks and exposes the Cullens," Michelle piped up with a shrug. "I used to have a client who was a former handler of mine, very very awkward."

"I can imagine," Klaus said as he sat down away from the two women, but close enough not to be just the observer.

"Found your file," Myriam smiled widely as she held up the file. "Your name truly is Michelle."

"Of course," the girl replied. "Why would I lie about that?"

"Because you're the only one who arrived here who didn't seem to have that hard of a time adjusting and realizing that you didn't have to go back," Myriam pointed out. "I've told you that before. I called you lucky."

"I was still new, Myriam. In the process of…" the redhead motioned wildly with her hand. "Losing my mind. I'm so glad Jasper got me out before I turned into a zombie."

She smiled at that. "I'm merely wondering why you haven't moved on. I gave you the tools, even some money in a bank account to get you started as I do with all my girls."

"I like this work, what? Are you firing me?"

Myriam pursed her lips. "Based on your performances, I should," she said as she pulled a piece of paper out of Michelle's file. "While you're always here, with the other girls, you only entertain one or two people a week. You rarely make an appearance in the dance club below. I agreed with you staying on, provided you'd work for me. Currently, you're taking up a spot for someone who's far more eager than you to work." She then looked at Klaus. "It's not that uncommon for rescued girls ending up working for me. They often find the work rewarding and good for their soul; taking back their ownership of their bodies."

"I see the problem," Klaus nodded slowly.

Panic washed over Michelle's freckled face. "Look, I'll do whatever you want. You can't kick me out, Myriam. Not after what you've done to the Cullens. They'll kill me!"

"Now why would they do that, I wonder?" Myriam replied as she opened the file on Michelle and started to read it. She had read the words several times over before, not believing the words on the pages, but Michelle's reaction had made them real. "Is it because you were working for the Cullens all along? With Alina? You know what happened to Alina, right?"

"I do, but… please, Myriam, don't kick me out. They'll kill me for not having done as they asked!"

"And you want me to take your word for it? That you haven't done what they told you to do?" Myriam snarled as she threw the folder in Michelle's face. "You betrayed my trust, Michelle. I can't believe you anymore."

"But I need help! I mean, that's what you do, right? Help girls who need it?"

"I helped you before under false pretenses. I don't give second chances." Myriam launched herself at Michelle and sunk her teeth into her neck as she sat down on her lap. She was hungry. She was angry, and Michelle had deceived her. This was a good death.

~o.O.o~

When the door opened, and Jasper appeared, Bella couldn't help but feel frightened for a moment. She was afraid that he'd take her back to Dr. Cullen and that she'd end up destroyed or worse; as a vegetable. It was then that she remembered that she had nothing to be afraid of. As it turned out, Jasper had been working undercover for Myriam for quite some time, and on top of that, Bella was sitting next to her protector; not even the Major could kill him.

On top of that, Jasper was supposed to be her brother. She hadn't realized it at first that they did look a lot alike. No one had noticed so far because Bella had always appeared as whoever people wanted to see her as due to Dr. Cullen's gift, so perhaps that was why Jasper hadn't realized it.

She didn't sense any negativity coming off of him, either, so she didn't feel threatened. The look on Jasper's face told her enough; he was just as surprised as she was.

"Well… you certainly look different without your gifts," he said as he scratched his head, still standing by the door. "I can see the resemblance."

"You don't remember either, do you?"

"No ma'am," he let out a breath. "All I know is that my sister was taken and I decided to join the Confederate army to find her and fight for our right of living." Jasper relaxed his stance, then, before a smile appeared on his face as if he remembered something. "I know that I was the older one and I called her Bunny."

Bella blinked at that, a sliver of recognition setting in before it became a full-blown memory. "Oh! I know!" She grinned at Kol who looked surprised before looking back to Jasper. "We had bunnies on our farm, didn't we? And I loved one in particular, and when that one was up for getting killed to feed us, I hid it for like a week and cried when Pa found it and killed it." A southern drawl not unlike Jasper's escaped her mouth. She was bouncing on the sofa next to Kol now, excitement running through her body. "You then started to call me Bunny just to annoy me! Guess what? I called you Buttercup!"

"It's amazing how you know this," Jasper said astonished. "I don't remember."

Bella shrugged, still bouncing. "Dr. Cullen said I was good with compartmentalizing things in my head; I must have tucked it away for safekeeping."

"What else is in there, I wonder?" Kol brushed a strand of hair out of her face once she stopped bouncing on the sofa. "So you were a bunny muncher, huh? And Jasper had to be a vegetarian once joining the Cullens! I should call Stefan; you could have a party!"

"No!" she gasped, grabbing Kol's arm with a vice-like strength. "You will not call Stefan Salvatore, Kol Mikaelson, or I will have your brother dagger you so hard it'll come out your ass."

He looked at her in mock shock. "What happened to this well-mannered girl that was sitting next to me?"

"She heard that the warm-blooded vampire sitting next to her wanted to call Stefan Salvatore and snapped," she shot at him. "You have any idea what he did to me? The guy is a monster!" Bella let out a frustrated grunt. "Ah! All the crappy things that I've done to myself to please Edward and Dr. Cullen! Why!"

"You're alright now, Bella," Jasper said, finally having moved into the room and settled into the chair. "You're safe. You no longer have to do their bidding."

Bella took a deep breath to try to calm down, but it didn't work. "While Kol's brother only folded me like a pretzel, Stefan Salvatore broke me in half and made me fall out of a window. If it hadn't been for Katherine… well, I'd still be alive because I can't die!"

"I thought you didn't feel anything?"

"I feel, Kol. Perhaps more than I should. My skin is hypersensitive to touch, still. The laughter is… was, a taught response to pain. I believe my rapid healing has gone after Dr. Cullen flushed my system clean of my gifts, but if it hadn't been for Katherine, I wouldn't have been able to continue that night after Stefan was through with me." She then sighed as she settled against Kol. "But it's what he needed, wasn't it? So I suppose I shouldn't complain."

"I'm going to kill that twat," Kol muttered.

"And then what? Will you kill Damon too? Anyone else of my clients who've previously hurt me? Your brother Elijah, perhaps? Or what about Dr. Cullen? Edward? Some of the Volturi? Or some werewolf alpha?" She released his hold on his arm and looked at Jasper. "Better off with a clean slate. A dented one, cracked, really. But a clean slate," she then looked back at Kol and smiled at him. "Without talk about the past. My past."

He knew what she was trying to do here, and it wasn't going to work. While in some cases not talking about things would be fantastic, Bella needed to feel free to keep talking about what had happened to her if she wanted to heal. A star in compartmentalizing or not, she had to heal. "You can talk about it as much as you want," Kol eventually replied and kissed the top of her head. "And you might not get angry about what you've been through, but that's okay. I have enough rage inside me for the both of us."

"As long as you don't kill anybody."

"I promise that I will not kill anybody," Kol said as he looked at Jasper in a silent form of communication, who nodded in return. "Would you like to be reacquainted with your brother?"

Bella smiled at that. "Of course. You should show him the journal entry you read to me. I might remember more in a while, but maybe he'd like to know what's in there."

"How about I leave you two alone?"

"No," Bella took his arm again. "Please stay."

"That's alright, Bunny," Jasper mused, a smile on his face. "I'll read that journal later; I have something to do anyway."

She cocked her head as she felt his emotions change. "No, you don't. What's that feeling you're having?"

"You didn't tell me that she still felt emotions," he said to Kol. "She wasn't flushed thoroughly?"

"I was," Bella said grumpily as his emotions changed yet again. "Dr. Cullen had always thought I was special on my own, the gifts he gave me only made it stronger and made me able to manipulate people. He tried to fix me after Emmett killed Katherine and got me back with DNA from someone else. I feel everything now, except for in this room you'd have to be close to me, for some reason. I can only sense what's inside and not outside those walls."

"Yet you sensed me outside the door," Jasper pointed out. "But I do have to admit, it's nice and quiet inside here, very relaxing. Unburdened."

Bella shrugged. "I don't know how I did that."

"The secret power of twins," Kol joked. "However, you're right that this room is a haven. Myriam had one of her witches cast a spell so that Bella could relax and not assaulted all day by thoughts of horny people walking around a level down."

"It's disturbing how some men feel when they visit the girls," Jasper scrunched up his face. "Disgusting. Do you honestly believe this is the best place for her to be?"

"For now, yes. We don't have our home back - yet. Bella is not ready for the real world yet, either. Far from it."

"And Bella's still here," she replied as she got up and got herself a glass of water from the little fountain in her room. "And I'm so ready for the real world. I can do anything; just you watch me." If Kol wanted her to, she could be out and about.

She could live within the rules he'd set for her, and she'd make him proud. It was more than likely that he didn't want her to have sex with people anymore, which was sad because that's what she was good at. The only thing she was good at. It was still likely that she was going to end up working for Myriam. Or offer herself as an eternal fountain of blood for vampires.

Bella had been trying to be more affectionate to Kol, to make him want her. To make him want to keep taking care of her as he had, but all he did was the occasional kiss on the head as if she was a child. Once Jasper was gone, she was going to step up her game. Finally get out of Kol's clothes as she was still wearing them, and take a shower. Maybe her naked body would convince him to join her. She needed to make sure the bathroom was in order; Bella could have sworn she saw some expensive brand of soap in the cupboard. "I'll be right back," she said as she went into the bathroom to check it out.

Kol had watched Jasper eye Bella, curiously. "Alright, spill it," Kol sighed. "I know you're an empath and can control emotions, so what was that all about?"

"Do I need to explain to you that for the last 150 years Bella - the girl, my sister, has been manipulated by the Cullens and has a different kind of normal than us? That she's experiencing emotions that she can't place?"

"What do you mean?"

"Carlisle made her part Nymph, part Succubus. I'm pretty sure he did more, but those were the main components of her genetic makeup. Everything that she felt - or believed she felt - were merely a mirror, an echo, from what either her handler was feeling or her target."

"Huh," Kol blinked. "Nymph and Succubus? That makes sense but how did he do that?!"

"You're not getting my message here," Jasper said calmly. "Bella said it herself. Now that she's flushed from all those additives, she feels. Perhaps too much. However, due to her upbringing, her normal, she doesn't understand them. She gets feelings off of us, and she doesn't understand them. I don't know how she works, but it's likely that she senses that something is positive or negative, but can't address the nuances."

He had sort of suspected as much. "Okay?"

"I get the sense that you care for her, deeply."

"I do. Even when Bella was merely seeing me as a client to work on… Despite her programming, I felt that she could see me for who I truly was. And she's funny."

Jasper smirked as he leaned over in his chair, his eyes searching Kol's face for a shift in feelings. "What are your intentions with her?" It felt good to feel brotherly. It was something that he hadn't realized that he had missed. Just his luck that Carlisle had taken his sister and made her immortal. Just her bad luck that Carlisle had taken her and done horrible things to her and made her do terrible things. "Do you intend to stick around? Make her happy? Or are you going to move on the moment she's able to fend for herself?"

"I don't think she'll ever be able to fend for herself without someone telling her what to do," Kol said sadly. "But from what I can tell, she's quite content around me." And damn, now he felt sorry for compelling her to be open to change. "I compelled her to have more of an open mind," he muttered. "To feel at ease here in the room because she kept wanting to return to the Cullens."

"But did you compel her to like you? To feel for you?"

"No!" He said appalled. "She's had her mind fucked with enough, don't you think? No, I merely gave her a slight adjustment to help her with the transition from being a slave to being a free person."

"Good," Jasper smirked. "Then I know what I've picked up from her is real and not a plant."

"What do you mean?"

"She doesn't understand what she's feeling, Kol, but she likes you. She likes you a lot," Jasper got up from his chair and headed to the door. "And you may think it's too soon, but I can tell you feel the same way. Stop denying yourself to feel something other than the protector for her. You're allowed to feel love and be loved. You're a vampire, she's immortal, the standard rules don't apply. Just don't break her heart because I will find a way to make the rest of your life miserable even if I can't kill you," he continued in a menacing voice before lightening up. "Tell her that I was called away. Myriam has me working with the other girls to see if I can be of any use."

Kol couldn't help but stare at Jasper as he left. Had he just been to therapy or something? Did he just get analyzed? Again? Kol knew that Jasper had been right about him, but could he have been correct about Bella's feelings?

"Where did Jasper go?" Bella's voice roused him from his thoughts. Seeing her furrowed brow, he could tell that she was picking up on his inner turmoil.

"Ah, he's helping Myriam with the other girls. Compulsion didn't work on them, so they need to have their head checked by the resident empath," Kol replied with a shrug. "He'll be back. Did you find what you were looking for?"

"Yes," Bella replied before she walked over to the closet to check to see if there were different clothes in there that she could use. Why hadn't she thought about it before? That's right; she felt too comfortable in Kol's clothes. But they were dirty with food and flour from baking all night, and she needed a change. Perhaps she could persuade him to part with his t-shirt later, just like she had done with that stupid pink pajama outfit. And if all failed, she would be able to get into something that was in the well-stocked closet.

"I feel all sticky from the flower and sweating in that kitchen," she continued as she turned around to face Kol and got out of the pants that she was wearing. "I'm going to take a bath, would you like to join me?" Bella asked as she removed his shirt on her, revealing her naked body to him. "I might need some deep cleaning with something _long_ and _hard_ … able to get into the deepest crevices…"

Kol swallowed hard. What was he supposed to do? Reject her? How would that make her feel? He needed to reject her because she didn't understand her feelings, but then again, she offered this voluntarily. And Jasper told him that she felt the same way as he did.

"I'm truly free, Kol," she purred as she walked over to him and started to undress him. "I'm embracing my freedom. They won't harm me and if they do, I'm sure you'd do anything in your power to wreck them," she pulled his pants down and his underwear, too. "We have some unfinished business, don't we?"

While he was insanely turned on right now and wanted to fuck her mercilessly, Kol knew that he shouldn't do this. Allow this. He should have her settle in some more; it's only been a few days, and now his cock was betraying him. Great. He looked down to find her on her knees, looking up at him through her lashes as she took hold on his cock and gently started to stroke it. "Bella…"

"You love this," she smiled at him. "Don't deny it. Or do you prefer the other version of me? The brunette? I'm sure that you could find some hair dye for me to use?"

"I like you just fine, and I love this but…" He groaned when she took him in her mouth. "Are you doing this for the right reasons?" When she scraped her teeth over his length, he hissed and out of habit, he grabbed her head to keep her in place. Damn her.

Her humming and sucking and pulling sent his body into overdrive. "Weren't you doing something in the bathroom?" Kol tried to focus, but she made it hard for him. Hard. He mentally slapped himself. "Bella, we need to stop this," he managed to cry out before she had him come into her mouth.

"You're right," she smiled at him, proud of the fact that she had him come into her mouth. Wiping her mouth, she got to her feet and took his hand to draw him into the bathroom. "I need a deep cleanse of my nether regions."


	9. Give it a go

"Bella," Kol complained as he was left shirtless in the morning. She had gotten out of bed before him to get dressed, and she had once again stolen his shirt. At least she had found a nice fitting pair of jeans in the closet with her clothes in it but still, his shirt. Again. "We're going to have breakfast with Nik and Myriam, do you expect me to be shirtless?"

"I wouldn't care," she smiled at him. Bella was fine with not going to breakfast with his brother and Myriam because of what happened the morning before. Niklaus scared her with his negativity, and she was afraid that it was her fault that he felt so negative. She had picked up on that back in Mystic Falls, but she hadn't been scared of him. She had a job to do, and Katherine was protecting her. Sort of. As well as she could before all things went to hell.

"Well, I do. Give me my shirt back," Kol reached for Bella, but she giggled and ran away from him. "Bella!" While it was cute that this had been once again an action of her own accord, he couldn't just show up without a shirt for breakfast. Nik would know that they had fun times or… No way! He eyed the security camera in the room and really hoped that nobody watched them or that it got saved onto a hard drive. Granted, most of what they did happened in the bathroom but… Oh, what the hell. At least whoever was watching got some free porn.

Bella pulled a t-shirt out of her closet and handed it to him. It was a black tee with something pink on it. "Seriously, I'm not a child."

Sighing, he got to his feet and inspected the contents of the closet himself. While all the clothes were brand new, they were indeed fit for someone who either loved pink very much or a young teenager. Clothes to bring comfort. Granted, Bella was 17 years old, but she had been that way 150 years. Her adulthood stolen by the Cullens. He could see why Myriam thought it would be nice for her to have clothes like the items in Bella's closet. "You're absolutely right, darling. What do you say? We're going shopping today?"

"You're taking me outside?"

"Do you think you can handle that?"

Bella shrugged. "I don't know. I think I can because you're taking me outside." She wasn't sure. In fact, she was scared. There were a lot of people in the streets, would she be able to stay in control over her own head? If Kol wanted her to go outside, she would. She could. Failure was not an option. Just like breakfast, apparently.

"And if not, I'll take you back here immediately, is that alright?" Kol saw the brief flash of panic on her face. "But it might be fun for you to go outside and experience a little bit of New Orleans. Baby steps."

"I'll be good," she smiled at him.

"Good, now hand me back my shirt because if we're going outside, I'm definitely not going to wear this."

"And I am?" Bella huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Yes. Until we find something more suitable for you."

"I could just go topless," she shrugged, still clinging onto his shirt. "I mean, you wouldn't mind, would you?"

"Others might." Tired of her game, he rushed over to her and pulled his shirt over her head before pulling it on himself. She was left with the black and pink t-shirt in her hands. "Put that on."

Defeated, Bella dropped her head and started to put it on as she was told. "I'm ready." She followed Kol out to the kitchen where Myriam and Klaus were already waiting. There were glasses of blood next to their plates, and Kol's, and Bella's had orange juice.

He didn't like the stupid smirk on his Myriam's face. "What?"

"Nothing," she said lightly. "I just skimmed last night's security feeds this morning, and it seems that my security guard had some lovely entertainment last night."

"Don't," Kol scowled.

"I never thought you'd be the shy one," Myriam grinned as she took a bite of her breakfast. "I thought you'd boast about your shenanigans."

"What were you thinking?" Klaus barked. "Taking advantage of her like that!"

"It wasn't me!" Kol said defensively. "Well, not at first!"

Myriam placed a hand on Klaus' arm. "We've discussed this, Klaus, no need to scare the locals."

"What?" Bella said as she looked between the vampires, confused. "Is this about Kol and me having sex? Were we too loud? I'm sorry," she added before she continued. "Kol seemed to be a little on edge and not entirely with me after Jasper left so I took matters into my own hand."

"Oh, don't apologize for having loud sex, Bella," Myriam shushed her. "Loud sex is fantastic. Loud, crazy sex is even better. Have you forgotten where you're staying at, Bella? Above a brothel and a sex club. Sex is what we do, and I like to tease. Kol's blushing furiously so I think mission accomplished."

"You can watch next time? I'm sure Kol wouldn't mind?"

"Kol would definitely mind!" Kol objected. "Bella, you're not everyone's sex poppet anymore, you're no longer going to be passed around as if you do not matter. It's going to be just me from now on if you want that to be and not anyone else."

Bella blinked at that. It sounded as if Kol wanted her to be his. If this was the case, she got what she wanted; Kol to take care of her like Katherine had done. He'd be her owner. He would be able to do whatever he wanted with her, and that excited her. "You want me to be yours?"

"Yes."

"For how long?"

"Indefinitely."

Bella thought for a moment before nodding. "I'm yours. You will tell me the details of the contract, yes?"

"Contract? What?" Kol blinked at her. "What contract? What are you talking about?"

"I'm yours. You'd need to get a contract or a certificate of ownership, yes?"

"No!"

"I'm not yours then?"

Kol groaned as he tiredly rubbed his face, ignoring the amused looks on his brother's face and that of his brother's girlfriend. "A little help here."

"Ah, but it's so much fun to see you struggle!" Myriam cooed as she took a sip of her blood. Poor little Bella looked so confused and sad at the same time. "Bella, can I ask you something? What do you think about the relationship between Klaus and me? What would you compare it to?"

"Like Dr. Cullen and his wife, of course. I was there when they signed the contract to be together forever. It was a different arrangement than mine, of course. Mrs. Cullen was only for him. I don't know the specific details, only that I never saw her. She was at home. Making sure everything was pleasing for him."

"Oh good lord, child," Myriam said quickly. "Klaus and I aren't married, and I will not make sure that everything is pleasing to him, fuck that."

Kol snorted. "See what I have to deal with? It's impossible to reason with her."

"Am I a burden to you, Kol?" Bella asked as she looked at him, it was evident that she was hurt. "Do you wish for me not to speak?"

"Bella…" Kol sighed. "No, that's not it."

"I call Klaus my boyfriend," Myriam said to Bella, ignoring Kol. "That means that we are together, we have sex only with each other and that we care for each other. No contract needed. We're equals, do you know what that means?" When the girl kept quiet, she continued. "I know you're used to being owned, Bella. Or handled, for that matter. But in an equal relationship you discuss things together. Klaus and I are both headstrong, so we usually fight, but we kiss and make up. He's not more than I am and I'm not more than he is."

"Unless she's trying to castrate me for doing something she does not agree with," Klaus muttered under his breath, causing Myriam to look over to him and kill him with her stare. "What?"

"But you're not perfect," Bella eventually said. "Not balanced. I can sense a lot of negativity coming from you both, but underneath it, I sense what I sense with Kol, what is that?"

"Relationships aren't perfect, Bella. Living more like a human instead of a drone is so much better because you never know what to expect. Kol was not asking you to be his as something to be owned, but he was asking you to become his as his equal, his only partner. Like myself and Klaus. Committed to each other."

"Not a foursome," Klaus immediately said. "Two separate couples. You and Kol and myself and Myriam."

"And the best part about this arrangement is is that once we decide we don't want the men anymore, we can leave them behind and move on with our lives," Myriam smirked.

"Why would you want to do that?" Bella blinked. "You're supposed to be listening to him, obeying him. Walking away from him is not right, is it?"

"We live in a free world, Bella," she replied kindly. "And I know that it's the complete opposite of what you know, but basically, nothing will change between you and Kol. You're merely giving your relationship a name."

"Then why give it a name at all?"

Myriam thought for a moment and repeated the conversation in her head. "Do you want to be with Kol?"

"I am with Kol. I want to be his, so he can take care of me like Katherine did. Make sure I do what I need to do." Bella was quiet for a moment as she thought about it. She had thought about it before; he could want her blood. She couldn't die, and thus, she was an endless blood source. While Edward had hurt, the warm-blooded vampires didn't hurt that much. On top of that, their blood could heal her. "He can even drink from me if he wishes to," she added softly, looking at her hands in her lap. "Because I'll be his and he can do what he wants."

Myriam smirked. She had hoped that Bella would dig a hole for herself. "Wrong. You can be his, and he can be yours, but that doesn't mean that he can do whatever he wants. If you don't want to do what he wants to do then you can tell him off, and he has no choice but to back off. Should he choose to insist, you can break his dick."

Bella gasped. "I'd never!"

"Give it a chance, Bella, allow Kol to teach you what it's like to be in a healthy relationship with the opposite sex. If you don't like it, you can always tell him that and see what would happen."

"As healthy he can be in a relationship," Klaus started, a teasing smile on his lips as he looked at his brother, who looked as if he could kill him. "Normally I would advise against dating my brother, but Myriam is right, Bella. You made it abundantly clear that you like my brother, very much so. He seems to be equally as smitten with you. I promise you, if he messes things up or takes advantage of you, I will make sure he won't do it again," Klaus added kindly.

"So you will make a contract that says I'm Kol's, but you own me?"

"Nobody bloody owns anyone," Klaus was squeezing his own leg with his hand to fight the impulse to slam his hand on the table. "There will be no contract."

"But how-"

"We'll discuss it later," Kol interrupted her and pointed at the spread before them. "Have something to eat, darling. You're going to want a full stomach when we go shopping."

"No, I want to know now," Bella said as she grabbed a slice of toast and put it on her plate.

"Fine. You understand loyalty, don't you? How you've been loyal to the Cullens for 150 years despite having a contract? Even now you fight against your own moral compass saying to defend them because you know they were trouble."

"Yes."

"If I become your boyfriend, all that loyalty you've felt towards them, is what I will feel towards you. I'll be yours. No contract needed because, Bella, despite your quirks, I want to be loyal and faithful to you. All I ask in return is the same. You'll be loyal and faithful to me. And by agreeing so, we'll have a verbal agreement that's the same as a contract, but easily broken."

"Okay," she smiled at him.

"What just happened?" Klaus felt incredulous. He and Myriam had tried so hard, with better examples at that, to explain the whole thing to Bella to no avail, but Kol managed to do it in a few sentences.

"Simplify things, Nik. Find examples that sort of echo with what you want her to understand," he replied as he buttered Bella's toast and sprinkled some sugar on top of it. "Simple things for an extraordinary girl."

"Then why did you ask for help?"

Kol smirked as he leaned back in his chair looking all smug. "As revenge for watching Bella and me have sex on the security footage."

Klaus' mouth fell open. "I can't believe you took revenge using the innocence of this girl."

Bella took a bite out of her toast and shrugged. "I'm not innocent. Not by a long shot. I've done things that will make you even blush, but we're not going to discuss that, are we? I'm really looking forward to going outside with Kol today."

"Are you sure you're ready for that, little one?" Myriam asked worriedly. "Only yesterday you freaked out about picking up on Klaus' inner turmoil."

"I'll be fine," Bella smiled at looked at Kol. "Kol will make sure of it."

~o.O.o~

Bella was all right, if she had to say so herself. She kept her mind focused on Kol, and on the words that he spoke. Words of the past, as he had lived in New Orleans before. His brothers even helped shape the city; especially the French Quarter, when they were here.

There were a lot of people in the streets, but she found it fascinating to be outside again. With Katherine, most of her time was spent in a car, but now she was actually moving amongst others. They all looked different too; there were men and women with tattoo's, piercings. Weird clothes. Wacky hairstyles.

The wonderful scents of food drawing her to every place that was cooking. She was hungry, even after having had quite the decent breakfast; a piece of toast, an egg and a glass of orange juice. Bella hoped that Kol would get her something to eat, to snack on. She couldn't wait to try some of the pastries!

He was surprised by how well she was doing, Bella was holding on to him quite tightly, but there was a big smile on her face as she was trying to soak in everything she saw, heard and smelled. However, Kol was well aware that she could head into an overload of stimuli and he didn't want that to happen so it was best that he took her to a quiet store to try on clothes. Dragging her into a Forever 21 wasn't going to happen. All those hormones flying around? Not a chance. Besides, Bella deserved something classy.

Kol didn't even have to compel a shop assistant to be nice and gentle with Bella once they got into the store. It was a decent sized store, and at the moment they were the only ones there. Looking at the prices, he wasn't surprised. However, the store had a lovely selection of clothes, and he had heard Bella's heartbeat speed up a little in excitement, so he was confident that she'd be leaving with an entire clothes rack.

As for himself, he decided to get a few new shirts. It was funny how Bella insisted on wearing one of his shirts, and it wasn't because of the shirts in her closet, no matter how much she tried to blame it on that. She genuinely wanted to wear his shirts. Flattering. Awesome. It also sent out a message to anyone who wanted to mess with her; she was with an Original vampire. Watch out.

They were in the store for about an hour, and Bella had found some clothes to wear, such as unflattering dungarees, but for some reason, she looked crazily hot in them, when the peace was disturbed by an undesired presence. "Kol Mikaelson, I was wondering when you'd show your face again. Haven't seen you in a while man."

With Bella safely in a clothing cubicle, he wasn't too alarmed when he turned to face the other vampire. "I've been a little bit busy, Marcel," he replied as he looked at the man. "How's the bleeding going for you?"

"It's why I'm here. I'd like you to call off your witches and stop the spell, this has been going on long enough."

"Has it? It's only been a few days!" Kol reacted surprised as he got his phone out and called his witch. "Selene? Darling, I want to thank you for that wonderful spell you've placed on Marcel; it truly was a thing of beauty. Would you be so kind to remove the spell for me? Thank you, you're a doll!"

A few minutes later, Marcel visibly relaxed. "I know you dislike me man, but why?"

"For those reasons exactly," Kol smirked and put his phone away. "I can do what I want."

"I've told you before, but I'll say it again; this is my town now. I know you've explained why you guys upped and left me like that, but this is still my city. Does Klaus know you're here?" Marcel had closed the space between them and tried to impress Kol with his height.

Kol wasn't impressed. The only reason Marcel was still alive was that he'd been busy. "Nik knows I'm here, yes."

"Well, I want you gone. You've been around for long enough."

He tried to hold back his laughter. "I think not," he huffed. "How about you scurry on? You're cured now, you should be thankful for my mercy," Kol continued, his vampire visage bleeding out ever so slightly. "Should you or your vampires harm Selene, I will make sure the rest of your miserable life is a living hell."

"Kol? What do you think of this dress?"

Damn her. Couldn't she have stayed in the cubicle a bit longer? Not taking his eyes off of Marcel, he replied; "I'll be with you in a second, darling, I'm taking care of something here."

Marcel looked around Kol to see who he was talking to and laughed. "Oh, wow. I get it, you were busy," he pat Kol on the shoulder to move passed him. "Hello sweet girl, has he been treating you well?"

"Hello, Marcel," she replied as she looked up to him. "I wasn't aware that you two knew each other." This was the vampire she thought of going to if neither Kol or Myriam wanted her. Marcel was selfless, in a way, not without stroking his own ego and he ran a tight ship, much like Klaus and Kol. Marcel was kind to young girls like the witch he'd been observing for years, watching her grow up and protected her when needed. He wouldn't have been a bad home. "How have you been keeping yourself?"

"Very well, thank you," Marcel replied with a broad smile on his face as he put an arm around her and looked at Kol. "What's this? Some weird Pretty Woman fantasy? You decided to destroy the Cullens and take their best girl for yourself? Wow, Kol. I knew you were something but to stoop as low as this? Getting scraps?"

Marcel was mean. Bella didn't like the feelings she got from him, either. Knowing that she'd likely get into trouble for her next action, she found herself not caring. She was protecting herself. Bella elbowed him in the stomach to startle him into letting go of her and Bella immediately went over to Kol. "He used to be nice," she muttered to him. "I don't think he's very happy with you."

"I know he isn't, darling, I don't like him very much either," Kol gently said and caressed her hair. "Your dress is lovely. Now, go and try on something else. We'll not allow Marcel to ruin our fun." Kol walked with her to the cubicle before rushing over to Marcel and pulled him into the storage room out of sight from Bella.

Killing Marcel was easy; he hadn't seen it coming. "No one insults the one I love," Kol breezed as he tore out Marcel's heart and crushed it. "And I'm taking back this city." When the vampire's body dropped to the floor, he let out a breath. "The King is dead, all hail the king."

He was going to have to go back for the body later, but for now, he was going to make sure that his Bella was having fun. Kol washed his hands in the sink and made sure that there wasn't a spot of blood on him before rejoining her. She was already waiting with a big smile on her face in a killer dress that made his cock jump into action. "Definitely that one."


	10. Break

Bella had acquired a whole new wardrobe and Kol told her to bring back just a few pieces as he believed that they weren't going to stay at Myriam's for any longer. She had used a cubicle to change out of her clothes into dungarees after noticing that he had bought new shirts for himself and demanded the one that he was wearing so she could wear it.

And damn, he never expected for those things to look so hot on a girl.

She was worn out by the time they got back to Myriam's, so he put her in bed and told her that he'd be back in a couple of hours, that he needed to feed and make preparations for their new home. He wanted it to be just as quiet as this room for her.

Kol made his way down to the basement where his brother and Jasper were working with the other girls and leaned against the doorpost. "Nik, I have something to confess." His brother wasn't going to like it that he killed Marcel. It was a spur of the moment thing, really. Kol was never good at impulse control.

"What did you do?"

Oh, he was going to endure the wrath of his brother, no doubt about it. Why was he going to confess that he killed Marcel anyway? Right, he needed backup in case a fight broke out when he was going to march into the compound with Marcel's body. "Good news is, getting our home back is a lot easier." Nik didn't keep daggers on him, did he? Nor nearby, did he? The worst that could happen was that Nik would disown him - again - and kick him out.

Should that happen, he was going to fight hard to get the compound back and have witches put up spells to keep his brother out. Perhaps even going as far to compel city officials to put the compound in Bella's name and no longer on the historical landmark registry.

No, it was better to ask Jasper. Tell Nik what he did after the deed was done, after protecting his own ass. "Bella and I may have put a dent in your bank account when we went shopping for clothes. I took her to a boutique." Thankfully, he was a great liar.

"That's alright, Kol, for a moment there I thought you had done something far worse and irreversible."

"Who? Me?" Kol laughed. "Please, Nik, I value my life. I don't want to risk being daggered and having Bella end up with you, now, do I?" He looked over to Jasper, who had a questionable look on his face. Yes, he couldn't hide from him. "Can I borrow you for a few hours?"

"Of course, where are we going?"

"Out."

"It's sunlight out. In case you haven't noticed, I have a skin condition."

"Don't worry about it, we'll ask a witch upstairs to spell you, I promise you, we're going to have a blast."

Klaus looked at his brother and the Cold One as they left the basement. It was nice that his brother tried to be friendly with Bella's brother, but for some reason he felt that there was more to it. Kol had done something bad and he didn't want to tell him. He knew that sooner or later, he'd find out anyway.

"You lied to your brother," Jasper pointed out the moment they had left Débauche. It felt nice to walk around in the sun without having to worry to poke an eye out with his sparkling skin. "Why?"

"I'd rather have myself protected before I admit to him that I killed his ward," Kol replied as he shoved his hands in his pockets as they walked through the street. "My issues with him got me daggered in the past and I'd rather stick around because of Bella."

"Why did you kill him? I thought you had a witch put a spell on him?"

Kol scowled. "Nothing gets passed him, you know. He has eyes everywhere so he found out I was at this store with Bella, to get her some clothes that she liked to wear, and he showed up, demanding I'd call off my witch." He shrugged then. "I didn't want to cooperate but I had Bella with me and didn't want to cause a scene so I did. Then Bella came out of her cubicle, showing off her pretty dress and Marcel saw her. Turns out, Marcel has hired her in the past."

"That made your blood boil?"

Kol nodded. "He then proceeded to insult her and me and I told Bella to try on something else before I dragged Marcel off to the stock room and ripped out his heart."

"I would have done the same, really," Jasper agreed. "Bella doesn't need all that crap."

"It's made it easier to take back the city, that's for sure, but both Nik and Elijah considered Marcel family after Nik rescued him from slavery. I got daggered over him. They treated Marcel better than they have ever treated me."

"I understand. Why do you need me?"

"I'm planning on taking Marcel's body back to the compound and claim it back. While I'm an Original vampire and quite capable of killing humans, against other vampires I'm not as skilled as Nik or Elijah, especially not if there are many." Oh, he didn't like to admit that he, Kol Mikaelson, had his shortcomings. They weren't even deliberate. He had always liked to stay away from vampire business and hang out with the witches and on top of that, Nik liked to put him in his box. It wasn't as if he had that much experience.

"How hard was that for you to admit?" Jasper mused as he looked over to him.

"Very."

"Thought so," Jasper deadpanned. "Not that I'm complaining and all, but can you give me a guess of what we'll find after dropping off Marcel's body?"

Kol sucked in a breath as they headed towards the store where he had left Marcel's body; or at least what was left of it. "Marcel had a handful of daywalkers, as he'd like to call them. Vampires who have proven to him to be loyal get a daylight ring. The vampires don't necessarily have to die, but those rings have got to go. Given the element of surprise, I might be able to compel them all to relinquish them."

"How many nightwalkers?"

"Oh, quite a lot… Mostly youngsters, but too many to fight on my own when needed."

"Good; I'm itching for a fight."

"That's it? No other questions of why I'm doing things or if there's another way of doing things or telling me to calm down?" Kol was surprised by Jasper's willingness to help him out, and was curious about his motives. "What's your angle here?"

"I understand that you and your siblings have a rather… strange relationship amongst yourselves and that you're afraid of your brother. If my help will ensure your safety - and thus Bella's - then I am happy to oblige," Jasper said as they entered the store. "I want her out of that club, man. Not just because of what's going on inside, but also because the other girls that were rescued don't particularly like Bella."

"Why's that?"

"She was the oldest of them there, Carlisle's first success story and oh, she was so perfect and they believed she was treated like royalty. Bella worked harder than any of those girls because she was indeed a success. Carlisle never managed to create another girl like her. Sure, the others were trained to obey and to behave, and for the most part they did, but they still had a will of their own. They blame Bella for their predicament." Jasper explained as he followed Kol to the store room where the desiccated body of Marcel lay. "They all have a screw loose, though. But I wouldn't be surprised that should they see Bella that they'll try to rip her to shreds."

Kol hummed. "I had a few girls like Bella from them."

"They were flawed. From what I heard is that most of those girls required a vampire of the original line to compel them into submission and obedience," he continued. "Bella's the special one. I have no doubt that once the Cullens regroup and rebuild their sources that they'll come for her again. Edward's obsession with her is severely unhealthy. The club isn't safe. They'll raze it to the ground in an instant. Yes, it's well protected, but it's no longer a safe location because believe me, the Cullens know all about Débauche; they just allowed Myriam to rescue their flawed girls because they couldn't be bothered by destroying them any longer."

He was going to be sick. Kol hauled Marcel's body off the floor after wrapping it up in a giant rug that he had compelled the owners to get for him and put him over his shoulder. "That is seriously fucked up."

Jasper nodded. "So if by taking back your home will ensure Bella's safety, then I'm all for it."

"You'd want to be in charge of security?"

"Would you allow me to?"

"Even against Niklaus when needed?"

"Whatever it takes," Jasper replied and then smiled. "Besides, you look like an awesome boss to have."

Oh, flattery. Kol loved flattery and shrugged. "Okay, why not?" If Jasper would prove himself to be a total hack, Kol could always destroy him.

"Don't worry, Kol. I love doing security, it's what I do best. Just like smashing in heads." He then smirked. "Ask Bella if you can trust me."

"Oh, I do trust you because of her reaction to you the other day, but I don't know you, darling."

"Isn't taking me with you to fight a damn army of squishy vampires a great way to get to know me?" Jasper quipped as he continued to follow Kol.

"Perhaps," Kol replied and then smirked. "Keep up!" He then sped off with Marcel slung over his shoulder. The sooner he claimed the Compound as his, the sooner he could go back to Bella. All of this could have been avoided, of course, if he had just taken her to the family plantation house and let Nik take back his precious city.

He was such an idiot.

~o.O.o~

After she had woken up from her nap, Kol hadn't come back yet. A couple of hours turned into a few days and by day three she had enough of baking and helping the cook cook food for everyone. Not even Klaus and Myriam knew where Kol was, but they weren't worried, that's what they told her. That she shouldn't allow her recovery to depend on Kol. She was her own woman, not someone else's.

It made sense, of course, and Kol could take care of himself; he was only feeding, wasn't he? Maybe she could suggest to him that he could feed on her since she couldn't die. It'd mean that he'd be around and make her feel at ease. Kol had been so generous with buying her clothes that she liked - and the outside world didn't feel that bad at all! She'd been so happy with how she had handled all the emotions by focusing solely on Kol and now she wished that he was back.

She had looked at the drawings that were in the journals that Kol was supposed to be reading to her and noticed that many of the drawings were by Dr. Cullen's hand, but some also by Edward's. Dr. Cullen's drawings focused on what he had done to her and Edward's drawings often depict her dismemberment. On occasion, some looked quite loving. The drawings made her feel sick to her stomach, for some reason, and she wasn't sure if she wanted Kol to read the journals to her anymore. If the drawing had these effects on her, how would the words affect him?

They needed to be destroyed; along with the medical journals that she knew that were in Myriam's possession. How was she supposed to start anew by learning from her past?

She still had some hope that she'd be saved; that the Cullens would come for her. Bella knew that it would likely destroy Kol, but her life had been easier. She did what she was told - no questions asked. No room for thoughts, no room for realisations. No time to sit idle and do nothing. Simply to be.

But, she also knew that she belonged in this new life. There were people who took care of her, just like the Cullens. It was merely quite different from what she was used to. Perhaps burning the journals would show them that she was ready for this. But perhaps it was best to hold on to them as a memory, seeing as she didn't have many of those, at least not that many that didn't involve her manipulating people's minds, do unspeakable things.

Bella was tainted.

There was no way that the Cullens would come for her; she'd be too broken to be fixed and they would destroy her. Or perhaps break her even further, obliterate her mind. That would be nice.

Oh, that was stupid. She was such a stupid, little girl. Bella had been gifted a new way of life; to enjoy life as it should be, like the clients she had entertained. Why did she want to go back to the Cullens?

Grabbing one of the plastic bags in the room, she pushed the journals in and headed straight to Myriam's office. Bella was going to ask her if she could burn them in the alley behind Débauche. She focused on her task as she walked down the stairs, Bella could feel a lot of strange, enticing feelings and it stirred something inside of her, unsure what to do with it. Kol hadn't given her permission to help other men to be entertained, so should she?

Taking a deep breath, she continued to focus on burning the journals and heading to Myriam's office. Bella could ignore the feelings. Of course she could. The time of giving in to the feelings that weren't hers had to be gone. It was gone. It wasn't ever going to return. The security guards let her through the secure door leading to the offices and once at the door of Myriam's, she knocked.

"Come in!" Myriam's voice sounded, and Bella was conscious now on how she referred to her as Myriam now, and not Ms. Jenkins. At least in her head.

She opened the door and was surprised to see that Myriam wasn't alone. Both Klaus and Circe were in the room. Bella was obviously interrupting and she felt her face redden. "Oh, uh, I'll come back later…"

"It's alright, Bella," Myriam smiled at her. "I'm glad you've decided to leave your room for something other than food. What can we do for you?"

"Uhm…" she didn't quite like it that all three of them had their eyes on her, it made her feel so small. "When's Kol coming back?"

"Soon, I imagine," Klaus replied as he leaned back in his chair, happy with the little distraction the girl was posing at the moment. "He hasn't forgotten about you, if that's what you're worried about."

"I'm not. I-" Bella took a deep breath and held up the bag filled with the journals. "Can I burn these in the alley?"

"If they're the clothes we've provided for you before you and Kol went on a shopping spree-"

"It's not," Bella interrupted Myriam - Ms. Jenkins. "They're the journals. I don't want them and I don't want anyone else to read them, either."

Raising an eyebrow, Myriam approached the girl and peeked into the bag, confirming that it indeed held the journals. While Myriam herself wouldn't want to throw out her memories or at least stories about what she'd been doing, she understood that it was different for Bella. Deciding to destroy the journals was a great step for Bella, her own decision, but was it the right one? "Are you sure? I could put them in my vault - only I have access to it - to keep them safe."

"I want them gone. Turned to ash," she held on to the bag as if she was afraid that someone was going to steal them from her. "It's alright if you won't allow me to; I'll wait until Kol gets back so he can do it with me."

"Are you sure?" Myriam repeated. "When you live for a little longer you'll forget things, it's nice to reminisce sometimes."

Bella impatiently glared at Myriam. "I can't read. I know what happened in the past - some of it anyway - and I wish to forget. I don't wish for anyone else to read what I've been doing or see the drawings in these journals. I want to burn them. If you truly wish for me to start over, you will allow me this."

"Are you sure?"

"Myriam, all I want to remember is things from my childhood, to tell things to Jasper since he's forgotten about it too. It's not in these things. Stop asking me if I'm sure. Yes, I'm sure!"

Klaus smiled widely, appreciative of how the girl had grown. "Very well then," he said as he held out his hand from his seat. "Hand them over so you don't have to see them anymore. Once Kol returns, we shall go into the Bayou for a celebration and burn those blasted journals."

"Really?"

"You have my word, Bella."

She walked over to Klaus and handed him the bag. "Don't read them."

"I won't."

"Thank you," she smiled at him before turning to make her leave out of the office.

"Uh Bella," Circe finally spoke up. "Before you go…"

"No, we've talked about this," Myriam said sternly. "She's not to be involved!"

Bella turned around, curious. "Involved in or with what?"

Circe grinned. "For the last four days I've been doing to the rest of the girls what I've done to you before you ran away. Suffice it to say, they were more than grateful for what I did, and I must say that they were a lot easier to work with," she explained. "Myriam and Klaus have me looking at all the medicine that was brought back from the Cullen's warehouse and I was wondering if you could help me with them. While my knowledge of drugs is extensive, I can't seem to make any sense of the bottles. My guess is that you know exactly what's in them and what they do."

Bella thought for a moment and shook her head. "I'm sorry but I don't."

"Yeah, you do," Circe pressed on. "The medical journals spoke of someone assisting Carlisle and she sounds a lot like you."

"In the beginning, maybe, before I was sent out, but his procedures changed over the years. I am or no use to you. It's better to throw it all out, destroy it all and make sure that nobody will be able to get their hands on the solutions."

"But I want to learn what it all is, how he did it and-"

"Shouldn't those medical journals tell you enough?" Bella countered sharply. "If I could help you, I would. Probably. But I can't."

"Not even if one of those solutions could help you with your thoughts, emotions?"

Bella shook her head. "It's filth. Disgusting. It's dangerous and it hurts a lot. I'm not going anywhere near those solutions. I don't want anything to do with it anymore. I'm done," she said angrily before leaving the office and headed straight for her room where she was greeted by a familiar sight.

"What has gotten your panties all tied up in a twist?"

"Kol," she smiled at him as she dove into his arms, holding onto him for dear life. "Where have you been?"

"Setting up our new home. Kicking the old people out, redecorating some… have a few witches throw up a few spells to keep you safe and our bedroom is a quiet zone where you won't be harassed by other people's emotions, just like this room is." He was relieved to find her having missed him, that she asked. "Aren't you proud of me?"

"Very," she smiled up to him and softly kissed him before helping him out of his shirt and pulling it over her head. Bella inhaled his scent and sighed happily before putting her arms around him again. "Thank you for coming back."

"I will always come back, that's a promise."


	11. Ahead

Just as he had made plans for Bella to move into the compound with him, his brother announced that he was going back to Mystic Falls to ensure that he could continue to make his precious hybrids. Kol had flown into a rage, then, despite wanting some distance from Nik because of him murdering Marcel. No, he felt hurt that, yet again, his brother wanted to seek for family elsewhere. To create an army of hybrids and be unstoppable.

Kol loved his brother dearly, but this was one of those schemes destined to fail and Nik wouldn't listen. Myriam was going with Nik to make sure he didn't do anything stupid, but where did that leave him? Alone. All his siblings in Mystic Falls.

Kol was fine with being alone, he had been alone for centuries before he was daggered the first time, but he was going to be left, by himself, with a huge responsibility on his hands - the leader of the vampire population in New Orleans and the protector of witches. He wasn't going to have any time for Bella, was he? Not if he didn't want to mess this up.

Bella's rehabilitation was important too.

Selene had orchestrated a meeting with the current Regent of the Nine Covens of New Orleans, Josephine LaRue, so that Kol could make his intentions clear; to ensure her that he was nothing like Marcel and that the witches could practise their magic freely. Hexes and curses, however, were only allowed after careful consideration by himself and Selene. He promised her that his vampires would protect the witches from the werewolves and didn't expect anything else in return. This surprised the Regent greatly, but she accepted it.

It was a week since he moved Bella out of Débauche before he truly had some time for her. He had made time. The entire day and more if needed. Bella wasn't complaining that she didn't get a lot of attention from him, but she never complained, did she? She understood that he had a job to do, that taking his home back from Marcel Gerard came with a seat of power and that he became an important vampire in the community.

Bella never became angry with him, or sad, or frustrated. If she felt any of that, it was because of her own thoughts and emotions, but it was never directed towards him. She always greeted him with the biggest, goofiest smile she had available. So innocent. So trusting. So loyal.

Oh, he knew that the loyalty and trust mostly stemmed from the way she'd been treated in the past, but she was giving him something he hadn't felt for a very long time. She saw him, truly saw him, and thought he was a good person, which made him want to work harder not to screw that up. For her.

Granted, Niklaus and Elijah probably wouldn't like the way Kol was handling things right now in New Orleans, or how it was supposed to be given some time, but Niklaus left, leaving him on his own. Kol hated leading things, but he was making it so that he didn't have a lot to do anyway. More time for Bella.

And once Niklaus would wake up and figure out that more hybrids wasn't the way to go and come back to New Orleans, Kol was going to make sure that by that time, Bella felt safe everywhere so he and her could leave. Travel the world.

Yeah, that was a great plan.

"What are you smirking about?" Bella sleepily asked as she rolled into him, looking up at him with her beautiful eyes.

"Future plans," he grinned and softly kissed her. "Good morning, beautiful."

"You haven't slept."

"I don't need sleep. I've been watching you all night and wow, such a sight."

She scrunched her nose like a little bunny and sighed, almost as if she was resigning to her fate. "Where are you off to today?"

He put his arms around her and smiled. "I was thinking we'd go into the city and find some furniture to decorate our home, it looks a bit bare, doesn't it?"

"It's your home."

"It's our home, Bella."

Bella let out a small huff as she shifted a little, entangling her legs with his. "I don't know anything about decorating a house."

"Well, neither do I."

"Then what's the point?" She shifted again, this time she rolled on top of him, straddling his waist with her legs, a cheeky smile on her face as she looked down at him.

He smiled at that. "To be honest, I have no idea. My siblings were always the one who put furniture in wherever we were. Elijah, really. To try to create a sense of home, I suppose. Or make us appear normal when having to deal with humans. A display of our wealth."

She looked like a goddess sitting on top of him like that. Totally naked. He couldn't help but to touch her, his hands were running up her sides as she wiggled her ass. Kol had her initiate sex, mainly because he wanted her to make some decisions, but if this wasn't going to lead anywhere, he was likely going to beg.

Bella smirked as she leaned forward and started to kiss along his jaw. "What would you like? Something modern, I'm guessing," she arched her back, pressing her breasts against his chest.

"If it were up to me, we'd have a couple of sofas and a large entertainment system with all the toys. Music, games, movies…"

"Oh, that sounds like a great idea," she agreed as she softly brushed his lips with hers. "Before or after we've had some fun in bed?"

"In between," Kol flipped the both of them over, loving it that she had started all of this, and decided to make her melt into him. Fly apart against him as he fucked her as excruciatingly slow as possible.

~o.O.o~

By week two he was bored with the _politics_. He wasn't a leader; he liked to march to his own drum and Kol found himself missing Elijah. Of all people, he was missing Elijah, because Elijah liked these kinds of things.

Kol had found Marcel's witch in an attic above St. Anne's Cathedral. She was so young, but oh so powerful and accidentally angered the Regent by killing the girl after discovering that she was relaying messages to people near the Cullen family. He was grateful for Jasper's ability then, and Abeebee's gift of righting wrongs by the power of patience and words. By the time Jasper and Abeebee had worked their magic on good ol' Josephine LaRue, even she realized that it had to be done; that killing Davina had been a necessary evil; the Cullens were not allowed to rise to power again.

No doubt that Elijah was laughing when by week three, Kol was shooting him messages. 'Come to New Orleans! It's ours!' 'Nik can have his throne!' 'Please, brother!' Rebekah had shot him down, of course. Even though New Orleans was now void of Marcel, she refused to come back and help out. She'd rather stick with Nik and make him see reason, that hybrids weren't an answer, that she, too, was family. Kol wouldn't be surprised if Rebekah found a way to kill the Doppelganger and destroy all of the blood that his brother had procured.

It's something Kol would do.

He liked checking up on Jasper's training with the vampires during week three, trusting Jasper in awarding the right vampires with daylight rings made by Selene. He also loved to see the blossoming relationship between Jasper and Bella. No new memories had surfaced, much to Bella's disappointment, but it was clear that they were siblings and sometimes even reminded him of his own family; the relationships he had with Nik and Rebekah.

It took a whole month for Bella to feel confident enough to leave the compound on her own and do some exploring. To do some shopping. While they had decorated the compound quite modernly within Kol's wishes, he had also wanted that she'd put something of herself in it; something she'd like. She'd been teaching herself how to read, Abeebee had gone and got her a few books, and even though she wasn't quite fluent - yet, she was enjoying it so much that she went out and got herself a few cooking books.

She thought it was nice to finally be able to use the correct measurements on a recipe, even though the math of multiplying was still beyond her, but Bella felt confident that she would get to that eventually. She was immortal, after all.

The first few recipes she tried from the books were awful, of course, but it was a learning curve, and once one succeeded, Kol saw her confidence grow even further. She didn't need the cooking books, she was an excellent cook and baker, even she said so, but Bella said she liked to broaden her horizons a little bit, and it was clear that she was enjoying herself.

Kol loved to see that she was making so much progress, coming out of her shell a bit more even though she was still quite shy around strangers. She asked him if he could fire the kitchen staff because she felt they were redundant; she could make food when needed and they made her feel uncomfortable whenever she was playing around. So he did and told her that she could have done it herself; she was his equal, not his inferior.

Whenever he couldn't find her, she was in the kitchen, in her element.

Kol had started to ignore his duties as a leader of the community; everything seemed to be running smoothly, there was no reason for him to stick his nose into everything and was finally able to enjoy the entertainment get up that he had bought. Video Games and music. He either played Rockband 3 or Call of Duty with music blasting out of his set without a care in the world, until one day he heard Bella scream.

She was in the kitchen, but he could hear her over the noise he was making. Kol dropped everything and rushed over, only to find Jasper with his sister and two new faces. Cold Ones. Kol didn't like it already. Bella flew into his arms and he tightly held her as he looked at the new arrivals. "Jasper, I don't appreciate you bringing in guests without telling me first," he said with a playful voice, but a tone of warning underneath it.

"My apologies, Kol," Jasper replied, running his hand through his hair. "I thought that she'd be ready for this by now."

"Explain yourself and better hope that I'm liking what you're telling me or your friends are dead."

"This is Peter, and Charlotte, and they're my friends. Peter is gifted, like myself, and both of them have chosen to steer clear of the Cullens ever since they met them," Jasper explained, reaching out with his gift to calm the Original and his sister. "Peter has some information."

"You should have come to me. Not her."

Jasper sighed. "Again, I believed she could handle it."

"The Cullens have received an investment from their European cousins," Peter ignored the behaviour of everyone. "For the last few weeks they've been setting up shop in a small town called DeLand in Florida, ready to start anew with their business. Their time in Baton Rouge has taught them better ways to deal with the sun. Now, Charlotte and I have taken care of the European cousins with some help from a pack of shifter wolves out of Washington, but we figured you might want to have a go at the Cullens themselves."

"Florida's far away enough."

"I believe they'll be coming for the girl," Peter said again. "They want to start over. What better way to do that with their beloved princess? Despite it being a 9 hour drive by car, you know how fast we are and how much we like our cars."

"This gives us some time to plan something," Jasper added. "Call your brother to help us out. Get Myriam's team back together and end them for once and for all."

Kol huffed as he still had his arm around Bella, pressing her against him. "Nik's too busy trying to make his precious hybrids and you know what? If the Cullens were planning on taking Bella back, we would have known."

"I'm telling you now," Peter replied, not believing the Original's lax attitude. "I don't know when, but they will come for her. Edward's obsession with her is unhealthy. Carlisle wants her back so he can resume using her as a labrat. They know that you're the only Original here and that your family is back in Mystic Falls. You're an easy target, Mr. Mikaelson."

"I can't be killed."

"No, but Emmett will make sure you're down long enough for them to fight off whatever security measure we have in place, the army of vampires you have is quite astonishing, but they're like match sticks," Jasper tried to reason. "Hell, even during training the best of your lot I accidentally killed one or two."

"Security is _your_ job, Jasper."

"Yes. And while it's impressive, it won't hold up against them. Not if they pull in the cousins. Their friends." Jasper grimaced. "And look, I understand your frustration and your arrogance, but Bella's special. She's the holy grail for them. One girl. Wars have been fought for less."

"I don't trust him."

"No, but you trust me. And I trust him. I trust his word. Abeebee is already reaching out to the girls to see who's up for a little fight to make sure my sister remains free."

"I remember Edward telling me that he hated a Peter. That they tried to get him into the business but that he refused on principle," Bella softly spoke, looking up at Kol. "His gift scared them, but they wanted him anyway so that he could help Alice." She could feel that Kol was scared. He wasn't so much scared of the Cullens, but more that it was likely that he had to do this without his brother having his back.

"What's your take on him?"

Bella looked at Peter and Charlotte before looking back at Kol. "Nothing negative."

"Do you think that they're right? That the Cullens will come back for you?"

She shrugged, then. "They're stupid enough to try."

Kol knew that Bella didn't want to go back, she had whispered that in his ear one night, but she had never spoken the words out loud. But this was a victory; she loved her new life, exploring new things and do whatever she pleased, why give that up? "Do you want to go back to them?"

Bella huffed. "No."

"They don't know that we know, now is the time to attack them before they get to us while we're unprepared," Jasper said kindly. "Call your brother."

"And admit that I can't do this without him? What was he doing when we were getting you? Sitting on his arse in Myriam's office, no doubt screwing her brains out."

"That was a surprise attack. Now they know what they're up against," Jasper pointed out. "They'll be prepared and we can use all the indestructible vampires we can get our hands on. That is, if you're still willing to fight for Bella. If not, I will take her away from you."

"Hey!" Bella objected and glared at her brother. "You will not! I'm staying with Kol for as long as he wants me to be with him and that's that."

"Even if he doesn't want to engage the Cullens?"

"Even if!" Bella felt fearless as she defended Kol and herself against her brother and realized that Jasper was messing with her. Briefly letting go of Kol to step over to her brother, she kicked him against the shins, which hurt her and not him, before going back to Kol. "Stop regulating my feelings. I'm fine."

"Yes you are," Jasper winked at her.

"But honestly, Bella, would you really want them to start over and hurt other girls? Take you back and do god knows what? Turn you into a perfect baby factory?"

Bella blinked at Peter. "Excuse me?"

"You may be immortal, but you still have a functioning womb as you're not dead like us. All the Cullens need to do is find a perfect match and have you poop out babies for them to grow and nurture into an army or the perfect slaves or whatever."

"No way." She looked at her brother in shock and shook her head. "Please tell me that he's lying." Bella hoped that Peter was lying; the idea of it made her feel sick. It was probably worse than being brainwashed and sent out to have sex with people.

"It was in your medical files," Jasper replied reluctantly. "Should you ever become too damaged to work again, they'd ensure the success of their business by having you give birth to babies, figuring that since you'd be the mother, that the children would be perfect to manipulate any way they wanted it to be."

It hadn't been a secret what Jasper just told her. In fact, they all knew but had chosen not to tell Bella about it, mainly because she didn't want to be reminded of the Cullens as she was settling in in her new life so well. But Jasper's words changed something in Bella then. While she hadn't been that negative out in the open towards the Cullens, she knew that what they had done was wrong.

Turning back to Kol, he could tell that she was on the warpath. "Please."

Kol knew what she was asking, she just couldn't say the words. "Are you sure?"

"They can't start doing this to other girls, Kol, especially not now that they're funded with their cousin's money. It's a wealth so big I cannot even begin to imagine. The possibilities are endless."

"And what about you?"

She huffed as she put one arm across her breasts and one hand protecting her modesty. "This is mine and yours. I trust that you won't let them touch me ever again. Let alone make me a baby factory. Small children are disgusting."

Kol felt so proud. Smiling, he reluctantly dug out his phone out of his pants. "Alright then, let's give my brother a call, shall we?"


	12. Bonding

Kol had decided some privacy was in order when phoning his brother. Not because he didn't want anyone to hear what his brother was saying, but mostly out of embarrassment. He didn't want to call Niklaus for this, but he knew that he had to if they were going to take down the Cullens for once and for all.

" _I'm not finished yet, Kol,"_ Klaus' voice sounded over the phone. " _There are more hybrids to be made."_

Kol knew that this was going to be his brother's answer, or at least along those lines.

" _Have you verified this information?"_

Of course he had. He had asked Selene to do a locator spell and had found them, exactly where Peter said they were. "Yes."

" _I don't know, Kol. We were supposed to leave them alone. They're not harming anybody right now."_

"Myriam isn't around, is she?" Kol mused. "If she were, you wouldn't have used those exact words."

It was quiet on the other end of the line for a moment. " _Perhaps I wouldn't have chosen those words, no."_

"They're using family money to start over, Nik. They'll come for Bella."

" _Not for a very long time."_

How was Niklaus so sure? Kol tiredly pinched the bridge of his nose. "Fine, we'll do it without your brilliant and gifted mind. I suppose that 'Always and Forever' still doesn't count for me. That I'm still not family enough for you."

" _I'm not saying that, Kol! I'm saying that we have enough time to prepare for war. Why do you think I'm creating hybrids?"_

"Because you can. Because you've always wanted a family who doesn't talk back!"

" _To create an army, brother."_

"I've got an army for you!"

It was quiet on the other end of the line for a while before Klaus sighed deeply. " _Hybrids won't break that easily. I have ten at this point."_

What was his brother saying? "Huh?"

" _Not everything I do is for my own betterment, Kol. I have to admit, the possibilities are endless now that I can make hybrids, no matter how many times the transition doesn't take for some werewolves,"_ Klaus spoke gently. " _I did start out with the idea of using them for my own personal army, but you are correct, we have an army of vampires. So why not use my hybrids to protect our family and have them fight for us against the Cullens?"_

"Oh." As always, his brother surprised him. But why had he acted so egotistical to begin with? To keep up the rouse of being a dick? Then again, Kol wasn't entirely straightforward to his brother, either, was he?

" _The sooner the headache is gone, the quicker I can go back to being selfish. Why won't you lot come to Mystic Falls? It'll give me some more time to find some more suitable werewolves around here and it'd be so much fun to see young Stefan beg for Miss Bella's forgiveness for what he did to her."_

"Nik…"

" _There's still time, Kol. Myriam and I have our own sources. There's no need to get all worried just yet. Come back to Mystic Falls for awhile. Our siblings would love to see you again."_

"You're keeping the coffins there."

" _I promise that I won't stick a dagger in you."_ Klaus then let out a snort. " _I believe that if anyone would try to hurt you that Miss Bella will become very dangerous."_

Kol huffed. "I'll put it up for a vote. I don't particularly fancy Bella meeting any of those idiots ever again."

" _Don't do anything stupid, Kol. For you to think that I think of her as less than family is ridiculous. She's just as much family as you are. Call me back later."_

After a few moments of staring at his now disconnected phone, he rejoined Bella, Jasper, Selene and Jasper's friends in the courtyard. Bella was quietly eating her cucumber sandwiches while Jasper and Peter were in conversation with each other. Even Selene tried to hold a conversation with Charlotte. "You look confused," Bella's voice sounded and when he looked at her again, she had that wonderful smile of hers on her face. "You feel confused."

"Yeah, my brother has his ways to keep me on my toes, I suppose," he replied as he sat on the armrest of the chair she was sitting on. Kol let out a deep breath and shrugged. "He wants to use the hybrids he's creating against the Cullens."

"That could be just the thing that might tip the balance," Jasper said thoughtfully and then grinned. "And you thought he went there for selfishness."

"He didn't deny that he did in the first place. He wants us to go to Mystic Falls so that he can continue to make hybrids while we form a plan."

"United you and your siblings are a much larger threat than by yourself."

"But I've got an army of vampires at my disposal; the witches like me."

"Do you know how hard it is for me not to kill them when I'm training them?" Jasper pointed out. "Granted, they know how to fight Cold Ones now, but if they get caught in our grasp, we can kill them. At least hybrids are a bit more sturdy than that."

"So, what you're saying is that we take our best and brightest and camp out in Mystic Falls?"

"I'm saying that despite the security we have here in New Orleans, it's a big city. Especially if the Cullens have their friends as back up, there will be a lot of civilian casualties should they decide to come here before we hit them first. Mystic Falls is a small town. Nobody will bat an eye when it gets wiped out due to a natural catastrophe. New Orleans, however, they've suffered enough, wouldn't you think?"

"There is no doubt that most of New Orleans will be slaughtered should the Cullens make the first move. I also believe that they know that it's just one Mikaelson here and that the others are still far away," Peter added carefully. "No offense to you, but your brothers are the ones who are feared for their warfare, you're just known for your love of witches and your bloodlust."

It took every fibre in his being not to launch himself at Peter and tear him apart for insulting him. It wasn't an insult; it was the truth, he knew that. He wasn't less than his siblings, he was merely… different. His expertise lay in other areas. "We're going to Mystic Falls then?"

"I'll have Abeebee and the rest of Myriam's team stay behind to keep an eye out here," Jasper nodded. "Perhaps Charlotte could stay behind too."

"Oh, sure," Charlotte grinned. "Abeebee and I have a lot to catch up on!" A huge smile appeared on her face then. "She's so limber."

"No hanky panky with my girl, Charlotte," Jasper warned her. "Now that I'm back full time, she's all mine."

Charlotte stuck out her tongue to him as she nestled herself against Peter. "When are you leaving? I can't wait to party."

~o.O.o~

Kol had to admit, he was a little worried about Bella when they were on their way to Mystic Falls. While she had two quiet places in New Orleans, she wouldn't have any in Mystic Falls and he hoped that she wouldn't relapse now that she was doing so well.

She was curled up on the passenger seat of the car, snug in her comfy clothes and wearing one of his worn shirts. There were more dirty shirts in the bag in the boot of the car, and he hoped that her smelling of him would deter the damn Salvatores from laying a finger on her. If not, he'd kill them. They've fooled around long enough, they were pitiful excuses for vampires, only fun to fuck around with. Ah, maybe he'd settle for repeatedly snapping their necks, their entertainment value was priceless.

"What are you thinking about?" Bella asked as she looked away from the window she was staring out of. "You don't have to go fight the Cullens, you know."

"Why? Do you want to go back?"

"No."

"Then we're going to do this. You're family now, Bella, and that means that we'll do everything in our power to keep our family safe." Kol smiled at her then. "I've told you this before, didn't I?"

Sighing, she nodded. "I think it's unreal and what has happened is unreal and that I'll wake up from my dream any time soon and I have to get back to work."

Kol let out a dark chuckle. "Now, if this was a dream, it would be incredibly fucked up."

Bella shrugged. "It wouldn't surprise me. They've done worse."

"I assure you, this is all very real," Kol put his hand on her leg and gently squeezed it as if to verify that he, in fact, was real. "Which is why we're going to fight the Cullens, end them for once and for all. Ultimate destruction had been nice to begin with, but our priority was to get you girls out and make sure they weren't able to touch their own money and assets anymore."

"Little did you know about their cousins."

"We believed they would stay hands off," Kol gritted his teeth as he gripped his steering wheel with his free hand. "Will you be alright in Mystic Falls?"

"Of course," she smiled at him. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Because of Stefan and my brother Elijah. For what they did to you."

Bella eyed him curiously. "It seems like you have a bigger problem with that than I do." Granted, she didn't really fancy seeing Stefan again. He broke her in half and let her fall out a window. He deserved to die, but it was what he needed at the time and she facilitated that need. It was a good thing that Kol had promised that he wouldn't kill anybody who had hurt her when she was still with the Cullens, apart from the Cullens themselves. It hadn't been the client's fault.

"I promised you that I wouldn't kill anyone," he smiled at her. "Will you be alright with staying at the family mansion?"

"Don't worry about me, Kol. I'm more worried that something happens to you."

"Like yourself, I can't die, darling," Kol smirked as he put his foot down on the pedal to speed up the car and prove a point. "Well, not unless they have White Oak lying around."

"Again, I wouldn't be surprised if they would have just that."

Letting out a breath he wasn't aware of holding, he squeezed her knee again. "It's alright to be scared, darling. But I promise you, we will end your nightmare."

~o.O.o~

"Elijah deserved a time-out," Klaus greeted them as he opened the car door for Bella upon arriving in Mystic Falls. "After we disposed of our beloved Mother, I knew that it would be good for our brother to have some rest. After all," he smiled at Bella as he helped her out of the car. "He did unspeakable things to the latest addition to our family."

"Kol!"

"I didn't dagger him, darling, that was all Niklaus," Kol grinned widely. "Although, I have to admit, life without Elijah is always easier, so good job, Nik!"

"Am I missing something here?" Klaus asked amused as he saw the look on Bella's face. She was ready to murder him if she could!

"Bella doesn't believe in punishment for those who have hurt her while she was _working_. She sees what she did as therapy, in a way, and that all the hatred should be focused on the Cullens for exploitation."

"Well, that's rubbish."

"And I'm still here," Bella replied as she looked at Klaus. She knew that he was doing only what he was used to doing and couldn't fault him. "And I suppose it's alright, I trust you in doing the right thing."

"Elijah would not approve of my hybrids, nor of the plans we're going to make to take down those Cold Ones for once and for all. He'd rather cuddle them to death," Klaus continued before he ushered his sibling and Bella inside. "How was your little trip? What do you think of our home in New Orleans, Bella?"

"Turns out that she's well acquainted with our home in New Orleans," Kol retorted coolly. "Your precious Marcel was no stranger to the services the Cullens provided."

Klaus was amused. "Was he now? He didn't feel too high and mighty for such a thing? You'd think he'd have masses of women at his feet, worshipping him, by the amount of charm he holds!"

Kol groaned, feeling sick. "Sometimes I wonder if you have a man crush on him."

"Please, brother, he's like a son to me."

"Whom you haven't seen in nearly a century and claimed New Orleans as his own," Kol sneered. "Well done, Nik."

Bella could feel the agitation between the two brothers grow and it suffocated her. Kicking Klaus in the shins to let go of her, she walked into the house, leaving them to fight about whatever the issue was between them. The house still looked immaculate, not a spec of dust anywhere, and since she'd left the home she could tell nothing had been moved, either. Nor replaced.

"Oh, I see my brother brought his harlot with him," Rebekah sounded bored as she looked up from her place on the sofa in the sitting room. "Word of advice, he'll lose interest in you soon enough."

Bella smiled at that. "Don't you look beautiful today, Rebekah."

Rebekah sighed exasperatedly. "Oh, he instructed you to get on my good side, didn't he?"

She was confused. Hadn't Klaus told Rebekah that Bella was coming? "No?"

The vampire sighed again as she turned around again, dismissing Bella to continue to read her book. "Then I don't know why you're even talking to me."

Bella didn't like to be around people much, not without Kol anyway, but she could sense that Rebekah didn't want her gone. Bella didn't want to be gone, either, because she happened to like Rebekah. Pushing away the urge to do as she was told, she sat down on the couch next to Rebekah and pushed the book down before extending her hand. "We've met before. Perhaps I looked a little different, I don't quite understand how that worked, but we've met before. I'm Bella and you and I had some amazing sex."

Rebekah blinked at her. "You do know that I could kill you with my pinkie."

Sighing, Bella relaxed into the couch. "No wonder you guys argue a lot, you're never telling things to each other. Things of importance," she sighed again. "And here I thought you'd remember us having mindblowing sex, which isn't going to happen again, you know. Seeing as Kol won't want that."

"Wait, wait… explain!"

"Did Klaus explain to you who Myriam is?"

"No," Rebekah scrunched up her nose as she put the book down. "She's quite something, though. I never thought Nik would be able to have a committed relationship. Now, if only he'd let me have one…"

"Myriam runs a brothel and strip club that masks as a rescue operation for people who've been hurt by the supernatural," Bella rolled her eyes. Why didn't Klaus tell Rebekah anything? She was his sibling, wasn't she? "She set it up with Klaus."

Rebekah was impressed and confused. "Huh."

"You know, don't you? You know everything and you decided to pretend not to know any of it because it sounds so out of character for your brother," Bella said after a brief pause. "You approve of his actions, don't you? You're proud!"

"If the stories are true then yes, I suppose Niklaus has surprised me."

"Isn't family supposed to be about sharing everything of importance? Such as their big plans or people in their lives…" Bella pulled her legs underneath her as she looked at Rebekah. "No offense, I'm the last person to talk about family. Jasper and I are still trying to work things out together."

"Again, who are you, exactly? How dare you talk to me like you know me?"

"Rebekah, I like you. Your brothers have nothing to do with me wanting to talk to you," Bella tried, but she could sense that Rebekah's mood had changed and really didn't want her around. There was a loneliness underneath her façade and a part of Bella wished that she wouldn't have to give up. Bella shifted a little and stared off in space in silence while Rebekah picked up her book again. After a while, Bella spoke up again. "You truly don't know who I am?"

"Of course I do, duckie," Rebekah sighed tiredly, there was frustration underneath it now. "I've overheard Nik and Myriam countless of times, talking about girls like you and the Cold Ones and whatnot and it broke my heart, for you. And here you are, my brother's girlfriend, making it clear that you're his by wearing his shirt underneath those ugly dungarees."

Bella let out a snort. "I picked them out myself, they're not ugly, they're extremely comfortable and your brother smells nice. And if you let me, I want to be your friend."

She seemed to think for a moment before nodding and putting her book away. "Alright, _friend_ , let's go out for a drink at the Mystic Grill. I can't wait to see the faces of those brats when I walk in with you!"

Bella was slightly hesitant about that. While she had been quite alright with making sure that the emotions of feelings of others weren't bothering her with Kol around, she didn't believe she was ready to go out without him. Or at least go out in a new town without knowing what to expect. "Uh…"

"You'll be fine, little one, we're merely going to have some harmless fun! I love to torment the baby vamps!" Rebekah said, a malicious excitement dripping from every word. "No doubt Nik and Kol won't even notice we're leaving, they're still having a go at each other."

"Where's Myriam?"

"Looking after Nik's little puppies seeing as Nik wanted to be here when you arrived," she motioned towards the door. "No doubt to pick a fight with Kol over small things." Rebekah got up and pulled Bella off the sofa before pulling her along with her, passing her squabbling brothers on the way. "Later, brothers. I'm taking Bella into town and not to worry, I'll make sure she's safe."

Before Kol or Klaus could react, Rebekah had Bella in the car and they were heading into town. She wasn't quite sure what to think of that, but at least she had gotten through to Rebekah some how. Or was Rebekah merely going to use her to tease the Salvatores? Would they even run into them? Would they run into Elena, perhaps? Kol had promised to give her a call so that Bella could apologize, but he never did and she hadn't bothered to keep asking him to do so, knowing it would only agitate him even further. Was this even a good idea?


	13. Cracks

Rebekah had ulterior motives, alright. Claiming to have done the same to Myriam, she was actively trying to push Bella's buttons by pulling her brothers down, to see what Bella's reaction would be, trying to see if her brother had been right about her other brother's girlfriend and Bella wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not that Rebekah felt let down.

Bella hadn't taken the bait. While she had been comfortable enough to flatter Rebekah and pay attention to her, she didn't like what the youngest Mikaelson was doing. Granted, she was only looking out for her siblings due to their history of messing things up, but things were good now. Bella pointed out that Myriam does a great job with Klaus and that Rebekah didn't have to worry about Kol, either. That it was alright for Rebekah to take Matt for a trip around the world, to find her own slice of happiness.

In turn, Rebekah didn't like it that Bella had yet again turned the conversation around and at that point she demanded to go back home, noting that by now her brothers would have been done arguing. Bella believed that Rebekah was bored with her now, now that she wasn't who she used to be.

"You're quiet," Kol found her in the library where she was trying to continue her practise of reading. "Something happen between you and my sister?"

Bella smiled up at him. "Why would there be?"

"Because she seems to be quite pissy after your return from the Mystic Grill," he snorted as he sat down next to her. "What happened?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "I think she was trying to get me to lash out at her or defend what you and I have but…"

"That's not you," Kol tucked a strand of Bella's blonde hair behind her ear. "I, for one, am happy that you decided to stick with me," he softly kissed her lips. "And should you ever decide to leave me, I won't be angry with you for doing so."

Bella let out a giggle. "I won't leave unless you tell me to."

"Well, that's the best deal ever, isn't it?" Kol smirked and kissed her hard, as he took the book out of her hands and threw it across the room. The sofa was going to get lucky; two hot people on it making out. Possibly going to have sex should there be no interruptions. Bella needed to feel better, he wanted to cheer her up and he needed some release after bickering with his brother. Sometimes Nik could be extremely annoying.

~o.O.o~

It took another two full weeks of planning, fighting, arrival of allies and discussing things for everyone to be on the same page. Klaus had managed to turn another handful of hybrids successfully and Bella had been quiet and observing all that time. She had mixed feelings about all of this. Granted, she answered any question that arose and she could answer, but mainly the questions were directed to Jasper, who had arrived with Selene as he knew more of the possible security issues that could be encountered should they attack the Cullens.

Yes, she was grateful that the Mikaelsons and everyone else who gathered at the house were willing to take down something that was bad and evil, but the Cullens had been her family, her home, for over 150 years. They deserved to live, despite their not-so-nice side. Or did they? Bella wasn't even sure how she'd react if she'd see them again, there was still this tiny pull towards them, back into their arms.

But they would hurt her again. They would mess with her brain and she'd forget all about Kol and Jasper while she was going to get pregnant and poop out babies. Going back to the Cullens was not an option and she was glad that they were going to be ended.

Time was pressing, everyone was walking around making the last preparations of their journey to DeLand, Florida to the Cullens and Bella had retreated to the stables to get away from the mass of emotions. She hadn't been to the stables in the last two weeks, mainly because she didn't want to get used to silence, Bella wanted to power through everything because she wasn't weak. She wasn't a quitter and the first edition of Fairy Tales by Hans Christian Anderson was a fun read so the library was where she spent most of her time.

She was shocked, however, to find the stables occupied. The Salvatore brothers, who had been put away somewhere by Klaus, but nobody had told her why or where. The few times she'd been in town with Rebekah or Kol, the question was always the same; 'what have you done with our friends?'. Stefan and Damon were in separate stables, looking out of it. Starved, but not to the point of desiccation. Compelled. Why?

"Don't open the box, blondie," Damon's voice sounded pained and gravelly. "Because I will suck you dry and then get my revenge on Klaus."

"But you're compelled."

"To not open the box," Damon replied. "And it's stupid because the damn lever is right there!"

"I'll open it."

"No!" He slammed against the bars. "If you do that, I will come out and I will kill you. Hurry along now, little girl, run away as far as possible from these vampires before they will ruin your life."

"You could open mine," Stefan's velvety voice sounded and Bella flinched. She never had any trouble with past clients before, but that was because she didn't have to deal with them or those feelings. She'd been trained not to react or not to remember, or both. Now that she had been living in the 'real world' for a while and slowly getting to know what scared her, she had to admit that Stefan Salvatore scared her. The memory of what he'd done to her was still lingering in her mind.

She knew that Stefan was a vegetarian vampire, that human blood made him a ripper, but she questioned his control. He didn't sound sane. Bella kept her eyes fixed on Damon. "I'll fix this. I'm going to talk to Kol and he'll release you."

"No, he won't. Run as far as you can, Blondie. The Mikaelsons are the worst of the worst."

"No, they're not," Bella said as she turned around and headed back inside the house in an attempt to find Kol, who she eventually found talking to Jasper and Klaus.

"Something's bothering her," Jasper pointed out, to which all three men turned to her and looked at Bella. "And now she's embarrassed."

"Stop it," Bella scowled, looking to the floor to see if a hole was going to open up to swallow her whole. "Can we talk?" She muttered.

"Of course," Kol replied as he pulled her into his arms and kissed the top of her head. "About what?"

"About what's in the stables."

"Oh! You found my little side project!" Klaus beamed from ear to ear. "What do you think, Bella? Aren't they right where they're supposed to be?"

"Even for you, I think this is cruel," Bella replied, looking over her shoulder to look at Klaus. "You're treating them like animals and they're starving."

"I told Nik you wouldn't like it," Kol slowly caressed her back. "But he wouldn't listen."

"Love, they've been the bane of our existence for years and Stefan hurt you. Of course I felt the need to take proper action. In fact, I wanted to serve their final punishment today."

"Damon doesn't deserve to be punished."

A delightful smile appeared on Klaus' face. "So you agree that Stefan does?"

"No!" Bella cried out. "You can't blame my former clients for hurting me, Klaus. It was my job. It was my job to take their abuse if they felt like they needed an outlet. My abilities encouraged that behaviour, drew their deepest, darkest urges out of them so I could manipulate them or not." When Klaus opened his mouth to say something, Bella spoke up again. "I'm not finished. Now that I'm aware of what I've been through and what clients did to me or didn't do to me, doesn't take away the fact that it wasn't them. It was all on me. Me and the Cullens for allowing things to go that far. If anyone should be punished for what Stefan did to me, it's me."

As a victim of abuse himself, he knew where she was coming from. Klaus always felt like he should be punished for being a monster, the monster created by his own mother and his fear of his father, the vampire hunter. Whenever his siblings were in peril, it was Klaus who dealt with the fall out. He sacrificed himself because he was even less fragile than his siblings and he deserved the pain. However, Bella was a victim of circumstance. She was an innocent bystander in all of this, manipulated by the Cullens to do despicable things. "Bella, love," Klaus said gently. "Will you also blame yourself for me daggering our brother Finn and drop his coffin in the deepest of oceans for facilitating Stefan and Elijah for hurting you?"

"You did what!" Bella said panicked. "No, you… there's no blame for him!"

"Well, to be honest, Finn had it coming," Kol deadpanned. "He called the Cullens which brought you here. He wanted you to make us fall under your spell to distract us from what he and Mother were up to."

"And it was Katherine who alerted us to what he was doing, remember that? Without you, all of us would have been dead. So dropping Finn in the ocean is a mercy. We could have daggered him with the White Oak Stake, but we didn't. Which is why Damon and Stefan are still alive. Uncomfortable, but alive."

She pulled away from Kol, she felt as if she was going to explode. "You're hurting people because of me! Because of what I did!"

"No, because of what the Cullens did, it's not your fault, Bella," Klaus replied. "Believe me, if it weren't for you, I would have killed them, just like Kol has killed Marcel."

"What!" Bella squeaked and looked at Kol, fearful of him now. "No, please…"

Kol scratched himself on the head. "Uh… Nik? I thought we agreed on not mentioning that in front or to Bella?"

"I don't care, Kol. It happened. You killed Marcel because he was insulting family."

"But he never hurt me!" Bella squeaked. Were they going to kill anyone who ever laid a finger on her? The list was endless! It then dawned on her that they probably had this list due to Carlisle's meticulous record keeping. Who was close to Mystic Falls? She thought hard, because she usually didn't know where she was when Emmett and Jasper took her out.

Bill! No, they weren't allowed to kill Bill. Bill had only wanted company and someone to listen to him when he spoke. Bill took her out hunting with a big rifle that he didn't trust her to shoot with due to her size and the gun's kickback. Bill treated her like… almost like a father from the things she read in the books. He certainly had the big beard to be a father! No, if they'd kill him… or had Klaus already killed him? Maybe she made the wrong decision of wanting to stay with the Mikaelsons. The Cullens never killed anyone, only if they broke the rules.

"She's going to bolt," Jasper said the moment Bella ran out of the room, wanting some space. "Let her go, she'll be back," he said quietly, putting his hand on Kol's arm to stop him from going after Bella. "This is a breakthrough."

"Let me go." Kol yanked on his arm to free himself, but the Cold One's grip was tough to break without breaking something himself.

"She doesn't need you right now," Jasper nodded towards the door where Myriam could be seen rushing past in the direction Bella had gone. "It'll be alright."

"How do you know?"

Jasper snickered. "She realised she felt a new emotion."

"Which one is that?"

"Guilt and remorse with a thin layer of non acceptance," Jasper explained, shrugging. "It's a very complicated emotion, but an emotion nonetheless."

"Then why the hell is Myriam going after her?"

"Myriam helped me, too," Klaus replied as he handed his brother a tumbler of bourbon. "Let's continue our conversation, shall we?"

Bella ran until she reached the gates that were closed. She wanted to leave the property but knew that she wouldn't be able to cope or she'd get lost so she instead opted to just create as much distance as she possibly could. She didn't understand why her former clients were going to pay for what she had did to them.

Stefan and Damon were in the stables, Marcel was dead and it didn't look like it was going to end there. Punishing the Cullens wasn't enough, she needed to be punished too. Maybe Circe hadn't thrown away all the chemicals that Carlisle had used on her and the other girls. There must be something in there that could hurt her.

"You look like you could use a drink," Myriam's voice sounded from behind her. Bella had been just about ready to kick against the wall that held one of the gates to see if it would break something for her own punishment.

"I don't drink," Bella quickly shoved her hands in her pockets and sighed.

Myriam hummed as she put her arm around Bella and lead her out of the gate. "Now is a good time to start, huh?" She smiled at her. "Growing up sucks, doesn't it?"

"I'm already grown up," Bella replied with a sulk. "It's the reasoning behind things that I don't understand."

"Must there always be a reason?"

"There's always a reason," Bella nodded. "I was always told the reason behind something."

"Aren't you confusing reason with logic?" When Bella stayed quiet, Myriam continued. "For example, you think it's logical that you should be the one who should be punished along with the Cullens for what happened to you, is that right?"

"I made people do some horrible things most of the time. I can't remember a lot of it, but some. I know that the Cullens need to be punished for what they've done to numerous of girls, but to go after the clients? I think that's not right."

Myriam nodded as she continued to steer Bella down the road to the nearest watering hole. "In your reasoning, all the girls who were in the grasp of the Cullens should be punished."

"No!"

"You make it sound like it, cherie. Now, if they don't deserve punishment, then why do you? Because you were one of the first? That Carlisle's successes with you prompted to getting more girls? Because you were the Princess?"

"Yes!"

Myriam shrugged. "Fair enough. Then tell me, Bella, did you go with Carlisle willingly all these years ago or were you taken?"

"Kol read the journal to me. He said I was taken."

"Then aren't you a victim yourself?" When Bella kept quiet again, Myriam continued. "Now, you might not see the connection, but I see a lot of similarities between you and the Mikaelsons, especially Klaus. You all suffered a great tragedy, or multiple tragedies and you blame yourself for the hurt that other people did onto you or how other people made you hurt them. You think you're as much to blame as everyone else, but Bella, you are not. The Cullens are to blame and everyone who hired you because they should have known better."

"They wouldn't have known."

"Believe me, Bella, tailor-made girls for pleasure is a dream and usually only done by some serious compelling which makes it not right in most cases. Quite frankly, you were raped over and over again despite you seemingly being the instigator. You didn't know any better. You were a puppet. And that's hard to accept, I know. For the first time in a very long time you're becoming aware of everyone and everything around you and you see the true faces of hurt." Myriam pulled her into the bar and ordered two tequilas before throwing one back and handed the other to Bella. "Drink up."

"I don't-"

"Drink up. We'll deal with the fall out later."

Bella reluctantly downed the shot and could feel it burn down her throat.

"Good girl. So we're clear on the fact that no blame is onto you?"

"I guess…" she replied as she watched the bartender refill their glasses. "But not everyone deserves punishment."

"Sure they do. Like I said; they should have known better. If something looks too good to be true, it's usually magic or compulsion in these parts," Myriam said, throwing back another shot and waited for Bella to do the same. "Now, as for the thing that made you storm out… What kind of emotions did you feel in that room when Klaus admitted to what he was doing to Stefan and Damon?"

"A warm blanket with sharp teeth," Bella replied as she looked at the confused look of Myriam. "I don't know how else to put it!"

"Fair enough," Myriam nodded as she retrieved the blocking amulet from her pocket and put it on the bar. "You can read me now. Is anything what you're picking up what you felt in that room?"

"Myriam…" Bella knew that Myriam didn't like to be read, but she couldn't not pick up on the same feelings. "Yes?"

She smiled at that as she threw back another shot of tequila. "That warm blanket is nothing but love for you, Bella. You surprised us all by how quickly we took to you. Even Klaus admitted to me that outside his family and myself, he wouldn't be able to feel something like that anymore. You see, if you've lived as long as they have, it gets harder to hold onto your humanity, after all, we started off as being human beings, so to feel something as strong as love for an outsider is remarkable. You made all of our moral compasses align together, you even managed to reunite a family in a way nobody believed was possible."

Bella blinked at that. "Finn is on the bottom of some ocean and Elijah is in a coffin, how is that reuniting a family?"

Laughing, Myriam took another shot and pushed one towards Bella. "Prior to the Mikaelson ball, Finn had been in his coffin for nearly 900 years for being a mommy's boy and against being a vampire. Even as a human, he was loyal to a fault to Esther and would often tell on his unruly siblings. None of the siblings like him, even Elijah. As far as Elijah's nap, well… there's too much going on to tell you but let's just say he deserves it. They are out of commission because they're disruptive to the rest of the family and it has nothing to do with you."

"Then why's Finn in the ocean and not with Elijah?"

"Because he would have brought death upon the family. But family isn't just blood, Bella. It's who you surround yourselves with. The moment you walked into the lives of the Mikaelsons, you became family and they would do anything for family. Like yourself, they've been through some scary times and they have dealt with it the only way they knew how; taking their revenge on those who wronged them. Why wouldn't they do the same for you?"

"Is that the teeth part?"

"Absolutely. You're a part of the family as much as I am. Perhaps even more because compared to us, you're helpless. Immortal, but not quite able to take your own revenge. Going after everyone who has ever hired you, touched you, raped you, and those who have created you, is getting revenge and justice for you because you deserve that. No one is ever going to hurt you again or pay the price for doing so."

"But the Cullens didn't feel like a warm blanket with teeth. If a warm blanket is love, then why did they tell me they loved me while they felt like cold feet?"

"They were using you. You were an experiment, a means to an end, their prized possession. There was no love there, only obsession."

Bella thought for a moment and slowly nodded. "I understand. But the Mikaelsons kill people."

"We're vampires, darling. We need blood to survive and why not use bad people for that? It beats using innocents, doesn't it?"

"You can feed without killing."

"Hey, we need some fun too!" Myriam laughed as she watched Bella down another shot glass. "Fun is great. It's so good to let loose sometimes. Fun isn't just having sex. It's doing something you enjoy. Like reading or dancing or killing. And tonight, I'm going to make you positively drunk, because that's fun too." She picked her amulet from the bar and put it back in her pocket. "If I have to compel everyone in this bar to stop feeling things, then I will. I want to see you out of control."

Bella snorted. "That's not going to happen."

"Yeah, it is. You're slurring your words on your third tequila. Good job!" She motioned to the bartender for more. "Drink up!"

"Kol will kill me."

"You can't be killed, so… boohoo to him and stop making excuses. Start living to the fullest."


	14. Taking The Plunge

"Lightweight coming through!" Myriam called out as she carried Bella into the mansion and headed straight to the drawing room where she could hear voices. The whole family was there, including Jasper, which made it easier for her, she supposed.

"What did you do?" Kol said shocked as he quickly rose to his feet and took Bella from Myriam, immediately checking her over for any bruises or cuts. Bella's eyes didn't focus properly and her breath smelled like alcohol. "You got her drunk!"

"You're welcome," Myriam grinned as she sat down on Klaus' lap, watching Kol carefully setting Bella down on the couch. "I had to carry her because she kept tripping or wander off in the wrong direction."

"Hi," Bella smiled widely at Kol, her arms tightly around his neck. "You are sooooooooooo pretty."

"You hear that, Kol? You're soooooo pretty!" Myriam echoed teasingly. "Go on, ask her about the blankets."

"What blankets?" Kol said confused, propping Bella up against some pillows and somehow maneuvering himself to be seated next to her without her letting go of him. "The warm blanket?"

"Yes!" Bella squaled. "I understand now! There are so many blankets in this room, it's unbelievable! And it feels incredible, it's… so beautiful!" She then looked at Klaus, with a big goofy grin on her face. "And Klaus is this giant puppy, so fluffy," she looked back at Kol with her big blue eyes, beaming. "Can we get a puppy when we get back to New Orleans?"

"Myriam, what did you do?" Klaus asked worried, scratching his head as he was concerned about the wasted girl on the couch with his brother.

"I helped her address` some of the feelings she's had, she felt, before I had her drink all the tequila at the bar."

"Not all," Bella piped up, still lovingly gazing up at Kol as she let go of him with one hand and it trailed down his body. "I think two bottles or something. A lot." Shifting a little so she was sitting on her knees, she used the back of the couch for support and whined when Kol removed her hand from his belt buckle. Sighing, she softly kissed him instead. "You're a thousand blankets and your teeth are awesome."

"You're not making any sense, darling," Kol said gently, again removing her hand from his pants.

"No, you're not making any sense," she giggled.

"Somebody explain to me what's going on!" Klaus demanded and looked at a horrified Jasper. "You! Explain!"

"I don't understand the blankets but she… uhm… she's…" Jasper was immensely distracted. "Very horny."

"The blankets."

"So many blankets," Bella sighed happily after crawling into Kol's lap and straddling his waist. "You're a thousand of them. Maybe more," she purred in his ear, rocking her hips against him. "And I feel those blankets for you too."

"Bella described the feelings she got off of you like warm blankets with sharp teeth. She's still not great with emotions and feelings, but at least she knows how to describe them," Myriam explained as she poured herself a glass of bourbon. "The sharp teeth is how protective you feel about her. The warm blankets is the love," she smiled widely. "She finally knows what love is, our little girl is finally growing up!"

Bella pressed her body into Kol's. "I understand now why you don't want to punish me, it wasn't my fault."

"Darling," Kol said with a strained voice. "That's great and all, but what are you doing?"

"Showing how much blankets I feel for you."

"In front of everyone else?"

"I don't care. They can watch, I know from experience that it can be quite satisfying."

"In front of your brother?"

Bella immediately stopped what she was doing as her head snapped to Jasper. "Close your eyes!"

"Bella, I'm an empath, you know it doesn't work that way," Jasper replied kindly, but irritation was etched on his face.

She narrowed her eyes on him when she felt her mood change. "You're not playing fair."

"For everyone's sanity, I so am," Jasper replied, a smirk on his face.

"Who says we were bothered by her actions?" Klaus replied playfully as he looked at the Cold One. "It's quite enjoyable to see my brother fight against his own urges while his drunk girlfriend is grinding against him."

"Nik!"

"True," Myriam piped up. "The longer Klaus watches, the more turned on he'll get and the more pleasure I'll be getting tonight!"

Jasper pointed at Bella. "She needs to sleep this off."

"You're a party pooper," Bella replied as she unsteadily got off Kol's lap and waddled to the nearest table with bottles on them. Lifting one up, she narrowed her eyes on the label. "Buh ooh uh rrrrh buh ooh nnn," thinking for a moment, she smiled widely. "Bourbon! This is what you drink all the time!" She took a tumbler and poured herself a generous amount of the liquid before taking a large gulp. "Oh, that's good," she let out a moan and ducked when Kol and Klaus were on top of her trying to get the glass out of her hands. Pushing between them, she twirled around on her feet and kept in motion until she bumped into Rebekah, sloshing the alcohol over the brim of the glass and onto her shirt. "Oops!" She reacted before emptying the glass in one go. "Hi, Bekah," she smiled as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Myriam got me drunk."

"Well, why wasn't I invited for girl's night out then?" Rebekah sounded hurt.

"Next time," Myriam promised as she kept an eye on Bella, who had put the glass down and was now unbuttoning Rebekah's shirt.

"I ruined your shirt," Bella muttered as she tugged on one of the buttons.

"It's fine, little one," Rebekah swatted Bella's hands away. "You don't need to undress me infront of everyone."

Bella reached for the buttons again. "Let me clean your shirt."

"No, it's fine," the vampire repeated and took a hold of Bella's wrists, making Bella look up to her and she hadn't been prepared for that. Even though Bella's gaze was unfocused, her eyes showed so much love, trust, that it melted her heart. Damn her brother for scooping her up and making her his.

"You are so pretty," Bella said breathlessly. "Your lips look so kissable…" She took a step closer to Rebekah and before she could do anything else, she could feel she was being grabbed by someone and squealed out loud when it felt like she was flying. "Yay!"

Setting Bella back down on the sofa, Kol made sure she looked at him before speaking to her. "My sister is off limits to you, you're mine."

"Of course I am," Bella giggled. "A thousand blankets!" She shifted a little to be more comfortable and leaned against Kol's chest as she half lay in his lap. "A thousand blankets and more. With teeth. You can use those teeth because you do it out of the blankets." Bella then yawned and curiously eyed Jasper. "Even on him," she muttered before slipping even further down until her head was in Kol's groin and fell asleep.

Klaus finished his drink before getting off his chair and held his hand out for Myriam. "I'd be honored if you'd come with me to keep this party going inside our bedroom."

"I thought you'd never ask," Myriam smiled as she took his hand and allowed him to pull her along.

~o.O.o~

At breakfast the following morning, Bella tried her best to be her usual self but she felt sluggish and she was so incredibly thirsty. She was distracted by the huge plate in front of her which held two pieces of toast with fried egg on top of them and slices of bacon. She was hungry and didn't wait for permission to eat. "Sorry for yesterday," she muttered as she kept shovelling the food inside her. "It won't happen again."

"Oh yes it will," Myriam deviously smiled as she took a sip of her blood. "Because it was fun."

"My head says it wasn't," Bella replied as she chewed on a piece of bacon. "I was an embarrassment."

"Trust me, you weren't," Kol gently caressed her back.

"You didn't want to have sex with me last night after I woke up."

"That's because you were still drunk."

"So?"

"I wasn't sure if it was what you wanted or if you were picking up on what I wanted."

Bella huffed as she continued to eat.

"I think she wanted to have sex," Myriam pointed out with a grin.

"Shut up," Kol muttered as he uneasily shifted in his chair. "She was drunk."

After breakfast Klaus took everyone to the stables as it was time for the Salvatore brothers' punishment before the Mikaelsons would travel to Florida with their mini army of hybrids and friendly vampires and witches from New Orleans. Bella still didn't like the idea of hurting those who had laid their hands on her, and she was still afraid of Stefan, but allowed it, because of the warm blankets with teeth.

"Oh, I'm so going to hurt you," Damon said when he saw Klaus. "You asshole."

"Watch your language, whelp, there are women present," Klaus commanded as he stood in front of Stefan's box. "I thought long and hard about it, and I realized that you don't deserve a quick and easy death," Klaus continued, after getting the attention of both vampires. "You're also fortunate that Miss Bella is a kind soul and wouldn't allow any of us to kill you in her presence, how hard that may be." He pulled Stefan closer through the bars of the box and started to compel him. "You're going to travel to DeLand, Florida, and you will fight side by side with us as we bring down the Cullens for once and for all. Of course, after you've been well fed." He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and handed it to Stefan. "I'm certain that this gentleman will taste quite nicely."

"You can't have him feed on humans, Klaus!" Damon spat. "Don't get me wrong, I think Stefan is the worst vampire on this planet, but you can't change his diet!"

Ignoring Damon, Klaus smirked. "From this day forward, you will not feed on animals any longer. If you're hungry, you'll find yourself a bottom feeder and eat that. You will control yourself. Upon completing your mission in DeLand, should you still be alive, you will not return to Mystic Falls and you will not contact Elena Gilbert or any of your friends. In fact, the state of Virginia and Louisiana are off limits to you. Do you understand?"

"I hate you," Stefan countered.

"And for that remark, I order you to stay away from your brother, too. Should you find yourself in his vicinity after Florida, I want you to do everything in your power to get away from him," Klaus released Stefan before moving to Damon's box. Grabbing him tightly, he smacked Damon's face against the bars. "For as long as you live, you shall feed on animals and animals alone. Preferably rats, but we don't want you to desiccate before your arrival in Florida, so animals. No more human blood for you, Damon Salvatore. Like your brother, you shall travel to DeLand, Florida to help us take down the Cullens and after that, you will leave. You shall not return to Mystic Falls or contact Elena Gilbert and your friends. As with your brother, you will not be allowed to stay in Virginia or Louisiana. You're going to make it your mission to stop your brother from feeding off on humans. Have I made myself clear?"

"Fuck you, Klaus."

"Well then!" Klaus said excitedly as he opened the boxes that held the two vampires. "Off you pop! See you in DeLand in a couple of days!"

As the two vampires managed to use the energy that was left inside of them to speed off, Kol and Myriam started to laugh and clap. Bella was still trying to do the math in her head because Stefan and Damon hadn't received the same orders. She even used her finger to draw a circle in the air as to see where she was going before realisation hit her. "Oh, I like that!"

"Should we ever get bored, all we have to do is track down one of them and see what happens when they get near each other," Klaus explained. "Trust me, love, they deserve this for everything they've put us through over the years."

"I know," Bella smiled at him. "I'm not angry. I understand."

"Very well! Now, let us pack and set off to Florida. I understand that Jasper and Rebekah have already left with your New Orleans witch as they'll have to take the long way in picking up some extra friends. How about we all travel in style to celebrate our Bella's emotional breakthrough?"

~o.O.o~

The house they were staying at in Daytona was immense. It was on some sort of peninsula off the coast and it was huge. Bella's jaw dropped at the sight of it. Granted, the Mikaelson family home in Mystic Falls was beautiful, but there was something about this house, and how the sun hit it, that made it feel like a warm blanket. "We're staying here?"

"Of course," Klaus replied as a matter of factly. "We can't possibly stay in a hotel and this mansion is isolated enough that we can do whatever we wish to do. I had Rebekah close the sale this morning and insisting on us being able to move in the same day."

"You bought a house?"

"Don't be so shocked, love," Klaus laughed. "We own houses all over this country, I suppose another one in Florida doesn't hurt."

Kol softly kissed her. "Once we're done, we're going to travel to each and every one of them, I promise. You'll love it."

As they walked into the grand entrance of the house, Bella didn't know where to look. It was open and light, you could see the sky and everything. Every room was immaculate and beautiful. Modern elegance with a slight nod to days of old. A lot of couches and chairs. A big dining room and the kitchen was so big and pretty that it nearly stopped her heart. While she loved the kitchen at the compound, it was more like an industrial kitchen, this one truly felt as if it was a part of the house. Bella prefered the romantic looking bedroom with ensuite bathroom as it looked out over the ocean behind the house, it also didn't look as fierce as the black and white one. There was a pool and a hot tub in the back garden and entrance to the ocean. This house felt like true freedom.

"I think she's in love," Kol grinned at his brother. They had been looking at houses ever since they started planning their little war and the pictures weren't lying; this house was perfect. They only bought houses when it was truly perfect for all of their needs and this one fit.

"I think you will have a hard time trying to get her to go back to New Orleans. Would you like me to take over the ruling of our city?" Klaus mused as he had his arm around Myriam.

"Nik, I already told you, I don't want New Orleans. I only wanted it in the end because I was afraid you'd box me for killing Marcel in a bout of anger."

"That's settled then," Klaus agreed. "You and Bella do whatever you wish to do and call this home your home. I will go back to our beloved Abattoir with Myriam -"

Myriam interrupted Klaus. "The hell I will. Although…" she thought for a moment. "Only if we can turn half of that place into another safe house so we can help more girls."

He looked at her and knew he couldn't disagree with her. "Very well. Then Rebekah can have her governor's mansion and once we mutually decide to unbox our brother Elijah, he can piss off to Mystic Falls."

"Strange, isn't it? How the pieces have fallen into place?" Kol said as he leaned against the wall, listening to Bella's careful footsteps around the house.

"Almost. We'll be getting rid of her nightmares first."

The front door opened and Rebekah walked in with a few bags of clothing. "Jasper and his witch are in a hotel until nightfall, the rest of the vampires are looking for friendly vampires in the city and in Orlando," she reported as she walked passed her brothers and sister in law. "Myriam, would you care to join me and Bella to find us some swim wear?"

"Oh yes," Myriam grinned as she let go of Klaus and followed Rebekah to wherever Bella was.

"Nik," Kol said hoarsely. "Bella in swimwear." The thought alone made him hard.

"Just imagine, brother, once you have this house all to yourselves, you two could go swimming in the nude."

"Nik!"

After roaming the house for a bit, leaving the girls to do what they wanted, he was alarmed by Bella screaming. It came from outside and using his speed, he was there in an instant, seeing Bella float to the surface of the pool. She was wearing a turquoise swimsuit with holes in them at the sides but covering most of her modesty and she looked absolutely ravishing. "What happened?"

"Rebekah threw me into the pool," Bella said as she pushed her hair out of her face.

"Because she wouldn't get in!"

"I must say it's nice, though," Bella smiled as she sloppily swum to the edge of the pool and hoisted herself up. "The water's nice."

Kol let out a breath of relief. "I thought something had happened."

"Do you honestly believe that I would allow something to happen to the girl in the Victoria Secret monokini?" Rebekah rolled her eyes at her brother. "Sorry, brother, the suit is too expensive for that!" She winked at her brother. "And she likes the rose colored bedroom, so I suppose that's your bedroom in this house."

"But any of the other ones is fine too," Bella quickly added. "Whatever you decide, Kol."

"No, we've talked about this, Bella. It's alright to demand something."

Bella climbed out of the pool, dripping wet, as she walked towards Kol. "I think demanding something is a bit mean," she started, but before she could finish what she wanted to say, Kol scooped her up and rushed her inside to the bedroom she liked. "Kol!" she laughed.

"We have some unfinished business, Bella."

She looked up to him, her face so trusting and so full of love it made him want her even more. "You want to take a plunge?"


	15. Wide Awake

Bella was amazed by the amount of people who had shown up on the outskirts of DeLand where the Cullens were. Klaus' hybrids, some New Orleans vampires, New Orleans witches, Stefan and Damon, and much to her surprise there were some Quileute wolves who felt uncomfortable to shift out of their wolf personas.

"Peter asked Garrett to go to ask the wolves if they wanted to do what they were built for," Jasper said quietly as he stood next to Bella. "You know the history of the Quileutes, don't you?"

Bella nodded. She knew that they were classified as shifters, not particularly as werewolves due to their size and the moon didn't faze them at all, but she'd never thought they'd actually existed. "They look like big horses."

"Toys, really," Jasper said amused. "However, I'm grateful to them for coming. It will make it a lot easier for us to take them all down. Rumors are that some of the Volturi guard had fled Italy before Peter and Charlotte destroyed them and the Cullens have many friends, as you know."

"It's going to be dangerous for all of you, isn't it?" Bella asked quietly. She wasn't so sure now if this was the best thing to do, but she knew that she couldn't talk anyone out of this. The Cullens were going to rise again and again and again if they weren't stopped. There was a chance that they were going to hurt so many more girls if they were allowed to go on and that wasn't fair.

He smiled at her. "But consider the alternative. If not us, then who?"

"I wish I could help in some way," she admitted as she looked at her brother. "I'm the only one here who's useless."

"Ah, you know what? We'll be saving Edward's pieces for you so you can light him on fire. Carlisle is mine."

Bella could feel how sharp Jasper's teeth had become and she could understand why. Carlisle had been the root of both of their lives, he was the one who had set Jasper's path in motion, who had changed Bella. This was personal. "As long as you come back in one piece, Buttercup, we have a lot of time to make up for."

He smiled at her, then. "Don't you worry, Bunny. I know what I'm doing."

"One thing still worries me, though," Klaus joined them to speak to Jasper. "Unlike vampires of your kind, we need to be invited into places. Are you certain we can enter that building?"

"Peter said not to worry," Jasper said to Klaus. "He said that we have everything we need to take them down. He's just sorry he can't be here."

Klaus huffed. "He's a coward."

"He and his mate singlehandedly disposed of the Volturi, I highly doubt that he's a coward, Klaus," Jasper retorted, slightly offended. "He merely choose to sit this one out. That's his choice. He's never been wrong about things before. I trust that we, indeed, have nothing to worry about."

"Alright then! Let's get this party started!" Klaus said cheerfully as he pointed at the witches and werewolves. "Vampires first, you come in behind us. Kol, I entrust you with Bella's safety."

"Oh, gee, Nik. As if I would allow anything to happen to her!"

"You're really going to knock on their front door?" Jasper mused as he fell in line next to Klaus.

"I'm nothing but polite to my enemies," Klaus replied playfully. "We're merely going to give them a slight head's up about what's about to happen and we'll see what's going to happen from there. Not everything has to be done by force."

"Although you prefer it."

"In this case, I find it's best to do my best to fuck with someone's head," Klaus smirked as he looked at Jasper. "They know this behaviour from Elijah, not from me. I'm not diplomatic, but it's fun to fuck around."

"As long as you only fuck me, that's fine," Myriam piped up as she joined Klaus on his other side. "I can't wait to tear into them," her vampire visage bled out then. "Rip them apart and shove their hands up their asses and their dicks in their ears."

"And with what will you plug the hole that's left by ripping off their manhood, love?" Klaus asked amused. He loved the way Myriam responded to battle. She was always so passionate, so eager. Not a lot of people had gotten to see this side of her, but underneath all that patience, there was a raging Queen.

"Their feet!"

"Sounds delightful, my love," he laughed and looked behind him to see if everyone had fallen in behind them before he started to run towards the building that held the Cullens. They had made the mistake of not having any kind of security around the building. Even if they hadn't suspected them to come and kill them all, they would have known that only time would tell when they would. Klaus would have put people outside to keep an eye out on things. This was disappointing.

Stopping in front of the door, he knocked on the door while Jasper stood out of sight next to him and Myriam right next to Klaus. He could already feel that it was going to be impossible to enter the building. All the vampires needed to get invited in. "I thought you said that Peter said we had nothing to worry about?" Klaus hissed at the friendly Cold One.

"Trust me," Jasper nodded, but couldn't hide his worry. Peter had never fucked up, why start now? "Have I let you down since we've met?"

Klaus eyed him but was then distracted by the door opening, revealing Emmett Cullen, looking surprised by the amount of people standing in the driveway. "I wasn't made aware of the fact that we were expecting company," he said a bit off. "Especially not this many. We're not open, man."

"You will open your home to us," Klaus smiled at Emmett. "Either voluntarily or I'm going to use force. You and your family have a lot to answer to."

"Uh…" Emmett scratched his head before turning around. "Carlisle! There are some pantsy vampires here, can I beat them up?"

Sighing, not believing Emmett's stupidity, or perhaps believing it, Jasper turned to pull the bigger vampire outside and tossed him into the midst of the New Orleans vampires. "Have at him, boys," he grinned as he looked at Klaus. "What? If you can't come in, I'll just have to pull them out one by one!"

"The idea is to get in!"

It were Alice and Carlisle who showed up to the open door next, both looking surprised. "Why didn't I see this coming? Why didn't I see this? Jasper! You've hurt us so much! Where have you been!"

"Niklaus Mikaelson," Carlisle greeted Klaus, speaking in his hushed voice. "I was wondering when we'd meet again. How's your brother, Elijah?"

"Elijah's not here, I'm afraid. You're going to have to deal with me." Klaus could see the color drain from the already pale vampire's face. "Are you going to ask your human to invite me in so we can talk?"

"I'm afraid that's not possible," he replied calmly. "We've been unable to contact her for quite some time now, which is a good thing for security reasons, obviously." Carlisle motioned to the horde of vampires who were pulling apart his adoptive son. "You do realize that what you're doing is an act of war against my family."

"You started it," Myriam spoke up. "By abusing and assaulting all those girls."

"Ah yes, the brothel owner," Carlisle smiled at her. "We know everything about you, Myriam Jenkins. We knew where our escaped girls were the entire time even if we couldn't follow them from a distance. If it hadn't been for the heroic act of Mr. Mikaelson here during his party, we would have come for them eventually."

"Please step aside so I can give you a piece of my mind," Myriam said, her vampire face bleeding out again and Klaus had to put his hand on her arm to make her stay put. As much as he wanted to do the same thing, they needed to get inside first.

"Hey, Alice," Jasper smiled at her and gently cupped her chin. "How's my favourite seer doing?"

"I miss you."

"I know, baby," he cooed and upped the feeling of being in love with him for her. "Now, who's the human that is protecting you all from harm?"

"Alice, don't," Carlisle pulled Alice away from his former security officer and pointed at Jasper. "You disappoint me, Jasper."

"He hasn't disappointed me," Myriam said, a big smile on her face. "You must have been doing something wrong."

"Alice, don't make me ask you again," Jasper said sternly. He knew Alice liked to play both sides, it's likely why she sent Bella to the party instead of someone else. Alice sometimes lamented about the fact that what Carlisle was doing was harmful and it made her think about the asylum she'd been in. "One way or another, we'll come in. If you want to survive this, you're going to have to tell me."

"I can't," Alice replied. "She's likely far away, I can't trace her or see what's happening. It's exactly what Carlisle wants because…"

Jasper smirked as he turned to Klaus. He knew exactly what Alice meant. It was smart. Anything precious wouldn't be brought to battle; normally. But the Mikaelsons were crazy and neither of them wanted Bella out of the fight because she deserved seeing them all burn. "Quite clever, don't you think? She never died, she's still human and because she's temporarily unavailable to them, she's the perfect security measure."

"Let's give her a call to test this theory, shall we?" Klaus replied as he turned around. "Kol! Could you bring her up front, please?"

The vampires behind Klaus, Jasper and Myriam parted and revealed Kol and Bella as they walked towards the door. "Are you insane?" Carlisle spat. "If we are going to fight -"

"Oh, we are," Klaus smirked.

"She could get herself killed!"

"Wouldn't that be a pity?" Klaus cocked his head as he looked at Carlisle. "You wouldn't be able to use her as a baby farm or a science project if you'd survive this."

Kol had his arm around a shaking Bella. She didn't want to go, but unlike her, Kol had great hearing and knew that this was all part of some scheme his brother was pulling. Nothing was going to happen to her, he had assured her of that.

"Hey bunny," Jasper smiled at her and took a step closer to her to make her feel safe. His sister was shitting bricks, just like Alice was doing at the moment.

"No way," Alice gasped as she looked at the girl. She looked exactly like Jasper. If this was the girl the deed of the house was in, it meant that this was the Princess and Carlisle had done even worse things than she had believed him to have done.

"Meet my twin sister, Alice, this is Bella Whitlock."

"You wouldn't be so crazy to bring her, it's all an act," Carlisle huffed. "You have witches on your side to glamour people. This is not the real Bella."

"Let's test that theory, shall we?" Klaus smiled and turned to Bella. "Love, we believe that you're the owner of this building and we really need to get in. All of us."

"Don't," Carlisle commanded as he levelled his gaze on Bella. "Be a good girl and don't invite them in, they will get us all killed! You need to protect this family, princess, be a good girl and protect us."

Bella saw the worried looks on Klaus' and Kol's faces before looking back at Carlisle. "What if it's what I want?"

"You don't want to kill us, we're your family."

"No, you're not. Jasper is. Kol, Myriam and Klaus are. They're my warm blankets with extremely sharp teeth and," she took a deep breath before raising her voice. "Every vampire in this parking lot is invited in, please enter!" Before she knew it, Kol had pulled her against him as everyone rushed in, around them. The excitement of the vampires made her body tingle. She could feel everyone, all at once.

When the werewolves and witches followed, only then Kol released her and smiled at her. "I am so proud of you," he kissed the top of her head. "Are you okay?"

"I'm ashamed to admit that it felt good to chose not to listen to Carlisle. I was worried that I would and…"

"But you didn't. And I'm so proud of you." He then grinned and took her hand. "Want to go inside and watch the massacre?"

"Yes!"

Bella found it oddly satisfying and thrilling to see everyone fight. The emotions flying around were like a rollercoaster and quite possibly wearing her out from having to deflect and ignore them, but she felt relieved that there was finally going to be an ending to the Cullen's exploitation of girls.

Some witches had found a handful of girls who hadn't been treated yet and had released them and a handful of New Orleans vampires had gotten themselves killed when fighting the Cullen's friends, but in the end, the battle was short and swift. The Cullens hadn't been prepared and it showed.

They realized too late that Carlisle Cullen had been hiding out until the battle was over, until nobody was on alert anymore before sneaking up on Bella and plunged a large bore syringe in her neck, making her cry out in pain and stumble away from Kol. The solution was burning, burning inside her veins, inside of every cell of her body and it was working fast. It almost felt like a cleansing and she realized what it was.

She was going to die.

Bella managed to pull the syringe out of her neck as Kol and Jasper tore Carlisle in half. She watched them as she slid down the wall to sit down and goofily smiled. She still had the last laugh as Carlisle's head rolled away.

Kol quickly made his way over to Bella and took her into his arms. "Hey, stay with me here," he said as she could feel his panic rise. "What's going on, tell me."

"I'm dying," she said as her body spasmed. "Everything in my body is shutting down rapidly," she then let out a laugh. "He didn't win. Even with my death."

"I don't want you to die, Bella."

"Neither of us wants you to die," Jasper said as he squatted down in front of her and Kol. Klaus and Myriam were standing behind him. "Especially not me."

"I am."

"She's in pain," Jasper said, his pale complexion turning white. "She's in so much pain and she's not giving up."

"I could turn you," Kol whispered as he kissed the top of her head and held her closer. "Bella, please, let me turn you."

She smiled, then. While the excitement of the other vampires was still there, those feelings were drowned out by the millions of warm blankets around her. "You'd really want me to stay?"

"Yes," he replied and pushed her hair out of her face. "Because of the blankets and you have so much to experience of this beautiful world, Bella, please…"

"I like the blankets," she muttered as her eyes closed. Her legs and arms felt so heavy all of a sudden, her head felt as if it was going to come off.

Kol gently shook her when her heart started to slow down. "Bella."

"Yes. I want to stay."

Her voice was barely a whisper then, but it was enough. Biting his wrist, he opened her mouth with one hand and put his wrist against her mouth. "Swallow, darling," he encouraged her. "You're going to fall asleep and when you awake, you'll feel brand new."

It didn't take long for her heart to stop and her breathing to stop existing.

Kol then freaked out. What if Bella hadn't swallowed enough of his blood? Humans only needed a little of vampire blood to turn but Bella had been experimented upon, her whole genetic makeup messed with. What if it hadn't been enough? Worse yet; what if it didn't take?

"Get her home, Kol. We'll clean up," Klaus said gently as he squeezed his brother's shoulder. "Take care of her."

~o.O.o~

Kol hadn't left Bella's side since getting her back to the house in Daytona. He had cleaned her up and dressed her in her most comfortable clothes, didn't forget to put her into one of his worn shirts, and waited for what seemed to be a very long time. It wasn't until he could hear her heart starting to beat again that he dared to let out a breath of relief.

It had taken longer than usual and that had scared him shitless. A life without Bella was scary to him, because he would have done stupid things that would most likely have caused him to end up in the box again because Kol could be so stupid and impulsive. He knew that. He had no control and had only learned to control himself a little because of Bella. And she loved him for who he was. What he was.

Jasper and Selene dropped by the house while he was waiting for her to wake up, which could take some time, with a present from Jasper for Bella; it was a beautiful ring that Selene has spelled to be a daylight ring and he hadn't even thought of arranging that so soon. His main concern was that Bella was coming out of her transition as a healthy vampire, everything else was just white noise.

Not much later Rebekah arrived with Nik and Myriam with a compelled human in tow, assuring Kol that this was a bad person and that Bella wouldn't mind drinking from him. Hell, Kol was so stressed out that he decided against fighting for control and had taken some for himself too, leaving enough for Bella to drink, but just enough for him to take the edge off.

His biggest wish for Bella would be to have lost the ability to feel emotions the way that she had. It was a magical part of her and usually magic died when the host was turned. However, Bella was such an unusual creature that it wouldn't surprise him if that ability remained.

Whatever the outcome, Bella was his and he would love every silly little quirk.

While the rest of them took a nap, Jasper stayed with Kol to watch over Bella and the moment she stirred, they were both standing next to the bed. Waiting. Eagerly.

"It's so creepy to notice that there are two people watching you sleep," she muttered as she moved to rub her eyes. "Don't you have anything better to do?"

Kol's heart jumped with joy as he crawled on the bed and kissed her forehead. "Good morning beautiful, how do you feel?"

Bella opened her eyes and eyed him. "Hungry," she said before kicking the blankets off of her and noticing what she was wearing. "You redressed me."

"Yes."

"You're such a pervert!" Bella exclaimed before pulling Kol down for a kiss. "Where's my food?"

Bella was going to be a strong vampire, Kol could tell by the way her fingers were grasping his hair. Tight. "Well aren't you demanding."

"I think I'm allowed to demand food. I want to complete the transition and then…" she playfully licked her lips as she looked at him. "I want you to see how many times you can make me come."

"I'm out," Jasper said, throwing his hands up in the air. "Good luck with that one."

"Buttercup!" Bella squealed as she released Kol and hugged her brother tightly. "Do you remember that one time when we were playing in the hayloft? I nearly fell off and you pulled me back up to safety. If you hadn't, I would have been dead or something."

"You remember?" Jasper was surprised.

"Oh, do I!" Bella giggled and pointed at her head. "I'm not even a full vampire yet and my head feels so much lighter, like a fog has lifted and I remember so many things of our childhood, Jasper, it feels so good to remember! Oh, the stories I can tell you… unless I forget all of them once I'm a vampire but… oh… granny made the best Apple Pie ever. And this one time, we got so drunk from granddaddy's moonshine… Oh, that was so fun but boy, were we in trouble!"

"Alright," he laughed. Bella was like an excited puppy. "Calm down before you hurt yourself, okay? Kol is getting you someone to snack on. We have all the time in the world."

Kol ran out of the room to pull in the compelled human and handed him to Bella. "So…" he looked at Jasper as Bella sank her teeth in the man. "She rebooted?"

Jasper smirked at that. "Seems so. Isn't it beautiful, though? She truly got her second chance at life and I'm glad I'm here to witness that. Bella deserves that. She deserves you."

"She's going to be worse than Rebekah, won't she?"

"Likely," Jasper grinned and pat Kol on his back. "Good luck. I'm out because man, she's horny."

"That's fine. So am I," Kol grinned and watched Jasper bolt out of the bedroom. He sat down on the bed and watched in admiration as Bella drained every last drop of blood from her human. "You don't have to kill him, you know, you could give him some time to recover and then feed from him again."

Bella dropped the unconscious body of the man to the floor and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. "Says the vampire with no control."

"Control is overrated."

"I agree," she said as she pounced on him, pushing him down to the mattress. "Thank you, Kol."

"For what?" He laughed.

"For my life."

THE END

* * *

 **A/N: Thank you all for reading this story and leaving me love! Keep your eyes peeled for a new story in 2017 called Divine Happenstance, it's a Bella/Kol fic and I'm already working on it. It's MUCH lighter than my usual stuff. The last part of Oops! will arrive one of these days as well.**

 **Enjoy your holidays.**

 **Much love, Buggy**


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